Opiate Drug Treatment in California - Facts and Figures

The website of the Trust for America's Health (TFAH) offers a large amount of information about opiate addiction treatment in the state of California. TFAH labels itself a non-profit, non-partisan group that works to save lives through community health efforts. Knowledge is power, and learning enough about what's going on in California will help you to fight opiate addiction.

California is a huge state with a population of nearly 39,000,000. Close to 17% of this population lives at or below the poverty line. Only 12.5% of California residents smoke, placing the state last on the number of states when they're ranked by number of smokers. But how bad is the opiate problem in California, and how easy is it to seek out help when you most need it?

Drug Addiction and Mortality Rates 

California doesn't rank high on the list of states when ranked by number of deaths from prescription drug addiction, even though it has the biggest population in the United States. It has the fifteenth lowest rate, in fact.

In California, however, because of the large population, even a low percentage equals a large number of people. This number adds up to somewhere between 3,900,000 and 5,800,000 deaths from prescription drugs.

Because of these large numbers, opiate drug treatment in California has become quite the priority among the politicians who control the purse strings.

Opiate Drug Treatment in California 

The TFAH takes the time to evaluate states for ten indicators of opiate drug treatment that help make their programs more successful. California ranks very high on their list and meets eight of ten of these success indicators.

One important factor is that the state have a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). These programs help doctors and pharmacists keep track of prescriptions for controlled substances throughout the state. If an individual goes to a pharmacy with a prescription, the pharmacist can access the program and check to see if they've filled any other prescriptions for pain pills. These programs cut down on doctor shopping and help prevent individuals from having multiple prescriptions filled for different complaints. These programs are state-run within individual states, and there are only eleven states that do not have one.

All states have legislation against the practice of doctor shopping as defined above.

California also has a Good Samaritan law. This means that if you overdose, then seek medical help, you cannot be prosecuted if you are found in possession of drugs or paraphernalia. In addition, if you seek help for someone else, you cannot be held liable.