This overview of prescription drug abuse includes historical background, key concepts, and discussion of the prevalence of drug abuse, treatments, and policy issues implicated in ending the epidemic.

• Zooms in on legal and policy issues related to the ongoing opioid epidemic in the U.S., providing insight into current and potential actions to limit the epidemic

• Describes each prescription drug among the most commonly abused, for what it is prescribed, how it works, economic cost, and the damage that abuse of the drug may cause to both individual health and social wellbeing

• Identifies each of the most common groups of people who abuse prescription drugs, their motivations for doing so, and the special risks for each

• Addresses commonly co-abused drugs and the risks of using them concurrently

• Includes comparative text examining prescription drug abuse in Canada and the United Kingdom