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Bridget M. Kuehn

JAMA. 2007;297:1306.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Worldwide abuse of prescription drugs will soon exceed illicit drug use, warned a United Nations panel charged with monitoring global patterns of drug abuse.

In its 2006 report, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), based in Vienna, Austria, noted that medications containing narcotic or psychotropic drugs are becoming the drugs of choice for many abusers, and that drug traffickers are responding to the demand through increased diversion and the production of counterfeit drugs (http://www.incb.org/incb/en/annual_report_2006.html).

The problem is particularly acute in the United States, where cannabis is the only illicit drug that is more widely abused than prescription drugs, including analgesics, stimulants, sedatives, and tranquilizers, according to the INCB. Between 1992 and 2003, the number of US individuals abusing prescription drugs increased from 7.8 million to 15.1 million.

Demand for prescription drugs for the purpose of abuse is fueling the production of counterfeits. In North America, . . . [Full Text of this Article]