Health security

Take as Prescribed: Drug Addiction in the US

The US consumes 80 percent of the world's supply of painkillers, and overdoses from prescription opioid drugs kill at least 16,000 Americans every year - more than cocaine and heroin combined.

Once thought to be a problem of the young, opioid addiction is becoming more common among elderly Americans."I was taking exactly what the doctor prescribed, when the doctor prescribed, how the doctor prescribed," says Larry Moore, who calls himself an "accidental addict." He said he wasted years of his life in "a deep, deep hole" hooked on painkillers.

When asked who should have stopped it, he says it should have been the doctors. "I was just doing what the doctors told me to do."

It is not just doctors under scrutiny. Two counties in California are suing the five major opioid drug manufacturers for "waging a campaign of deception."