Three hundred and forty eight British Columbians died of drug overdoses in 2013, and illicit drug users are not the only victims. One-fifth of those overdose deaths were people taking their painkiller medications as prescribed. In some regions of the province, more are dying of painkiller drug overdose than in motor-vehicle accidents.

According to research published in the journal Pain Research & Management, 22 percent of B.C.’s adult population meet the criteria for a chronic pain diagnosis. Many of these people are prescribed opioid painkillers such as oxycodone, morphine, and fentanyl to deal with their conditions.

Far more British Columbians are using prescription painkillers than those using heroin. Yet overdose is most common among the province’s illicit drug users. This results largely from the inability to determine the potency or content of street heroin, which frequently contains other drugs.

When another drug is sold as heroin, it can mean death for the user. For example, fentanyl is commonly sold on the street as heroin, despite being 100 times more powerful. This leads users to inject fentanyl thinking it was heroin, increasing overdose deaths.

In comparison, most of us never worry the prescription from the pharmacy could be laced with a drug 100 times stronger. If we never need to worry about our meds being spiked, then why are so many of us overdosing on prescription painkillers?

It comes down to overdose education. Illicit drug users are taught how to use a lifesaving drug, known as naloxone, to reverse opioid overdoses. They are also encouraged to attend seminars that teach them not to mix drugs such as sleeping pills, when they are using an opioid.

This kind of education is typically not provided to users of prescription painkiller drugs. Alarmingly, 91 per cent of prescription drug overdose deaths also involved other medications that illicit drug users are warned against mixing.

Why don’t we provide similar education to users of prescription painkillers?

Many people still believe only heroin users overdose. Thus, this education is thought to be unwarranted by physicians and their patients. This perception is dangerous, as the province’s approximately 70 prescription painkiller overdose deaths each year can attest.

It seems the stigma and sense of otherness that can characterize life as an illicit drug user is manifesting itself in new ways, and claiming new victims.

It’s time for us to revaluate the difference between a heroin user and a prescription morphine user. Both of these users are using medication to treat pain-related conditions.

For the prescription painkiller user, this pain is physical. Many of the 22 per cent of British Columbians with a chronic pain diagnosis are prescribed high-dose opioids to treat a condition that can make enjoying a normal life difficult. Sometimes these patients, through their circumstances, find themselves changing to heroin use.

For the illicit drug user, this pain can be emotional and deep-rooted. Fifty-eight per cent of this group report having been sexually abused as children. Comparatively, the rates of sexual abuse in the general population vary from 9-28 per cent.

Whether physical or emotional, pain is pain. When society differentiates a drug user by the pain they feel, or the drugs they use, we lose more of our friends and family members.