More Children Are Being Poisoned By Prescription Opioids

(NPR, Oct. 31) Children being hospitalized for opioid poisoning has skyrocketed in recent years. A new study at Yale found that the rate of hospitalizations increased 165 percent from 1997 to 2012, or 1.40 per 100,000 kids to 3.71 per 100,000. Prescription drugs are easy to obtain, and left unlocked at home, and kids can find their way into the bottles easily. The victims range from toddlers who think the drugs are candy, and whose rate more than doubled, to teens who either experimented with drug abuse or tried suicide. READ MORE.