# 142

Analgesics (pain killers) which suppress respiration all the way down to cessation (through sleep, coma and to death) found in toxicology report for another pop recording artist.

Below article reports that Tom Petty, like Prince before him, experienced bone injuries with corresponding pain which was treated with prescribed opioids - including oxycodone and fentanyl.

Too much publicity and attention is given to the analgesic virtues of opioids.

Too little publicity and attention is given to the respiratory-override inevitability from taking lethal doses of opioids.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/family-tom-petty-died-accidental-drug-overdose-52476314

#  141  

Drug Overdoses contribute to record number of organ donors.

Article reports that organ donors volume has increased by approximately 3% .  Physician attributes the increase to "...opioids were probably involved. "We don't have the data ... to absolutely say that with certainty, but I think that's a reasonable assumption."

"There was also a record number of total donors, both living and deceased: 16,462, up 3% from the year before.

There were more than 10,000 deceased organ donors last year, a 3% increase over the previous year and a 27% jump since 2007. More than 1,300 of those donors, or 13%, died from drug overdoses.

"About 40% of the increase (in the past five years) tracks back to the drug intoxication issue," said Dr. David Klassen, the network's chief medical officer. And although the data didn't determine which drugs contributed to those overdoses, Klassen said opioids were probably involved. "We don't have the data ... to absolutely say that with certainty, but I think that's a reasonable assumption."

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/health/opioid-overdose-organ-donation/index.html