As long as we are talking about licit and illicit "drugs", we should mention that the two biggest death tolls are from good old booze--most often taken alone or in combination with the greatest killer of all: non-psychoactive tobacco. These kill far more Floridians than do Cocaine or Oxycontin, and they kill you slowly and painfully. Alcohol ruins relationships and destroys careers as it muddles brains. So let's first admit that the toll from licit pharmaceuticals and illegal street drugs is much less widespread. Some questions remain:

1. Which particular combinations are most deadly? In the days when barbiturates were widely prescribed, suicides were well aware of the alcohol-downer combination's efficacy.

2. Of the drug deaths, how many were truly suicidal and how many were accidental (the user did not figure on dying)?

3. Should society take steps to absolutely prevent the possibility of drug suicide--leaving open the option of jumping from bridges. What about terminally ill cancer patients who want to end it all? Isn't drug overdose a more elegant way of 'going' than shooting your brains out?

4. Does the degree of suicidal or accidental death from drugs and their combinations warrant a more restrictive approach to pain management, which is usually the reason for prescribing these drugs. IOW, should the innocent suffer for the sins of the careless, the reckless, and the suicidal?

My POV is that since alcohol and tobacco are known to cause many orders of magnitudes more deaths than licit and illicit drugs, yet remain widely available, the main problem is not the drugs. Society should not absolutely prevent you from offing yourself in certain situations, though it should educate people about the dangers of drug consumption. Patients suffering chronic, acute, and particularly terminal pain should be given appropriate meds; we should not worry about a terminal cancer patient's addiction to narcotics.

Hey, I think that goes right along with the article!

To add to this excellent post, I would also be interested to see how often the drug 'cocktails' involved include alcohol. I would be willing to bet money that the vast majority of prescription drug deaths involved the consumption of alcohol as well...

I would be willing to bet money that the vast majority of prescription drug deaths involved the consumption of alcohol as well...

Excellent point--which I was going to amke, but forgot.

Unfortunately, alcohol increases both the lethality and the efficacy of many of the sedatives and painkillers, and many users know this. Still, some go too far.

As an observation, "experienced" users know the efficacy of adding alcohol and/or other medications be the licit or illicit to what they are taking, and often take them for that reason; or to counteract something they've already consumed. A line of coke after smoking a bit to much weed being an example, or a couple of shots to increase the effect of some s a couple of Valium. I suspect where the problem lies in many cases is the taking of too much of a secondary substance either due to judgement being a bit clouded or inexperience.