Statement by Joseph A. Califano, Jr. Founder and Chairman Emeritus of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA)*†

NEW YORK, Oct. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Jamie Lee Curtis, board member of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) from 2001 to 2009, is on the cover of this week's People magazine discussing her opioid addiction. I met Jamie in Los Angeles on January 13, 2001, where the two of us had a moving three and a half hour lunch.  Her candor, pain and commitment in her early days of sobriety were an inspiration to me and one of the powerful reasons why CASA spent years working on the nation's first report on controlled prescription drugs.

At CASA, Sue Foster, Linda Richter and I had begun work on the report, Under the Counter: The Diversion and Abuse of Controlled Prescription Drugs, which I released at the National Press Club on July 7, 2005. The report's conclusion thirteen years ago was: "Our nation is in the throes of an epidemic of controlled prescription drug abuse and addiction." 

We said: "Between 1992 and 2003, while the US population increased 14 percent, the number of people abusing controlled prescription drugs jumped 94 percent—twice the increase in the number abusing marijuana, five times the increase in the number abusing cocaine and 60 times the increase in the number abusing heroin."  We expressed alarm at the "212 percent increase from 1992 to 2003 in the number of 12- to 17- year-olds abusing controlled prescription drugs." We pointed out that the medicine cabinet had become "a greater temptation and threat than the illegal street drug dealer, as some parents have become unwitting passive pushers."

The report on our web site (and my accompanying statement summarizing it) offer a host of recommendations for actions by physicians, parents, pharmaceutical companies as well as government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration – which should be on the list of those implementing the recently enacted opioid legislation.

Thank you, Jamie Lee Curtis for your courage in speaking out and for your service on CASA's board.

*Now D/B/A/ Center on Addiction

^†The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse is neither affiliated with, nor sponsored by, the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (also known as "CASA") or any of its member organizations or any other organization with the name of "CASA."

SOURCE Center on Addiction

Related Links

http://www.centeronaddiction.org