According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), prescription medication misuse and abuse causes more accidental deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.

California has one of the highest rates of narcotic abuse and deaths related to opioid abuse and misuse. Children and teens admit they are stealing prescription medications from their parents or the medicine cabinets of friends and relatives. Unfortunately, when these opioids and prescriptions no longer provide the high they want, they turn to heroin. In 2017, we lost more than 500 San Diegans to an opioid or drug overdose. In the U.S., that number was more than 70,000. That’s more Americans in one year than were killed in the Vietnam War.

Many of these deaths are blamed on synthetic fentanyl. San Diego County is seeing record numbers of heroin, meth, and opioids pouring in from our ports of entry. But in the last couple of years, those making the drugs have been lacing them with fake fentanyl which can be up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. Just a tiny amount the size of 4 grains of salt can kill you. Real estate agents also deal with prescription drug thefts every day.

Access is part of the problem. The vast majority of misused drugs – more than 70 percent – are reportedly obtained from another person’s medicine cabinet, not from a dealer on the street. It is important to know that providing medications, such as Vicodin or Oxycontin, to someone is not only potentially dangerous to their health but is also a federal crime. Doctors prescribe medicines based on a person’s specific symptoms and medical history. A medicine that works for you could be dangerous for someone else.

To make matters worse, people are even posing as home-buyers at open houses to raid the home’s medicine cabinet.