Topic:

Painful Painkillers

Photo by Tiffany Brown / Las Vegas Sun

Prescription drugs confiscated by the coroner's office in the past six weeks are displayed at the coroner's offices Wednesday.

Interactive

Compare the annual change in prescription narcotic consumption across the country between 1997 and 2006.

A Sun investigation reveals a confounding crisis — Nevadans consume about twice the national average per capita of prescription narcotics.

Painkillers play a vital role in medicine, but experts struggle to explain why so many are consumed in Nevada.

Theories abound — the black market is thriving, tourists drive up the numbers and hurried doctors may too quickly write prescriptions.

One thing is sure: As the rate of painkiller use climbs, so too does abuse. And Clark County's overdose deaths from prescription narcotics now outnumber those from street drugs.

How we did it: Tracking Nevadans' Appetite for Painkillers

Archive highlights

When drugs bring harm not healing

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Two days before their first wedding anniversary, Andrea Duncan woke up to find her husband, Clint, beside her, dead of a prescription drug overdose. Instead of celebrating their marriage, she ...

Her outlook darkened as her addiction deepened, journal details

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Staci Voyda’s journal is a stark look into prescription narcotic addiction.

Patient's husband remembers her wry humor, last pain-filled weeks

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Barbara Baile’s death was both agonizing and avoidable, leaving her husband of 50 years painfully lonely.

The painful truth about Nevada

Sun, Jul 6, 2008

By Marshall Allen, Alex Richards

The New Addiction: Part 1: Nevadans consume about twice the national average of several prescription painkillers, making us among the most narcotic-addled populations in the United States, a Sun analysis ...

All stories

Another doctor loses his right to prescribe

Wed, Dec 3, 2008

By Marshall Allen

The Nevada State Medical Examiners Board has stripped a Las Vegas psychiatrist of his license to prescribe controlled substances because the drugs he prescribed to a Kentucky woman may have ...

Prescription drug crisis dribbles into public schools

Wed, Nov 26, 2008

By Jeff Pope

Prescription drug abuse could be the next illicit drug menace for teens in the Las Vegas Valley, Clark County School District Police say.

License to prescribe lost, practice sold

Tue, Nov 25, 2008

By Marshall Allen

A Henderson physician whose license to prescribe controlled substances was yanked by state authorities has abruptly sold his business, leaving his 1,500 patients in the hands of a new medical ...

Doctor loses license to prescribe

Fri, Nov 14, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Saying they were frustrated by how long their investigation took, medical board officials on Thursday stripped Dr. Kevin Buckwalter of his license to prescribe controlled substances after a review of ...

Board strips doctor of license to prescribe controlled substances

Thu, Nov 13, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Nevada health authorities this morning stripped Dr. Kevin Buckwalter of his license to prescribe controlled substances, alleging four cases of malpractice, including one patient death due to excessive prescribing of ...

The myth of addicts’ power over actions

Thu, Nov 6, 2008

By Marshall Allen

We don’t consider it a moral failure if a diabetic can’t control her blood sugar level.

Legally, doctor is under no limits

Tue, Oct 21, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Investigations of Dr. Kevin Buckwalter are continuing, but the Nevada State Medical Examiners Board has not suspended his license or taken any steps to force him to curtail his prescribing ...

Patient's husband remembers her wry humor, last pain-filled weeks

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Barbara Baile’s death was both agonizing and avoidable, leaving her husband of 50 years painfully lonely.

When drugs bring harm not healing

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Two days before their first wedding anniversary, Andrea Duncan woke up to find her husband, Clint, beside her, dead of a prescription drug overdose. Instead of celebrating their marriage, she ...

Her outlook darkened as her addiction deepened, journal details

Wed, Oct 15, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Staci Voyda’s journal is a stark look into prescription narcotic addiction.

One reason behind Nevada's problem with narcotic painkillers

Tue, Sep 16, 2008

By Marshall Allen

A Las Vegas man says his Henderson physician turned him into a drug addict and caused him to overdose by prescribing him as many as 1,170 narcotic painkillers in a ...

Pharmacy board wins round in Supreme Court

Mon, Sep 15, 2008

By Cy Ryan

CARSON CITY –- The state Pharmacy Board can punish a drug wholesaler that broke the law without proving the company intended to cause harm or violate the law.

Narcotics case a first for Nevada

Wed, Sep 3, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Nevada bartenders are not liable for customers who drive drunk, but should the same be true for pharmacists who provide pills to suspected drug addicts?

For pharmacy techs, drugs easy to steal

Mon, Aug 25, 2008

By Marshall Allen

Some of the main suppliers to drug dealers wear white lab coats.

Lack of resources blocks treatment

Mon, Jul 28, 2008

By Marshall Allen

She’s a mother of three, a hairdresser and on the brink of divorce, and this is how addicted she is to prescription narcotics: She gets so stressed just at the ...