Getting into your medicine cabinet may be more dangerous than getting into your car, according to the latest fatality statistics. An analysis conducted by the Los Angeles Times shows prescription medicines killed at least 37,485 people in the U.S.  in 2009.

Fueling the surge in deaths are prescription pain and anxiety drugs that are potent, highly addictive and especially dangerous when combined with one another or with other drugs or alcohol.  According to the Times, the most commonly abused are OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax and Soma.  A fairly new drug, Fentanyl,  is 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Public health experts are calling abuse or misuse of prescription narcotics a national epidemic. Much of the problem, they say, stems from the fact that consumers tend to think of prescription medications as “safe,” or non-addictive, and do not heed warnings against combining these drugs with others or with alcohol. Anyone taking these drugs should treat them like the powerful narcotics they are and follow use directions to the letter.

Robert Jenner brings to the My Advocates medical and legal team more than 26 years experience representing injured consumers nation-wide against the manufacturers of dangerous prescription drugs, defective medical devices, tainted blood products, and other unsafe products. Mr. Jenner has been honored by his peers for inclusion in “The Best Lawyers in America” and “Maryland’s Super Lawyers”(named in Top 50). READ FULL BIO