It’s not always the illegal drugs that can kill us.

Some of the legal ones that come out of prescription and over-the-counter containers have been a major factor in a growing drug overdose death rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some of the risks identified by the CDC and Food and Drug Administration:

1. Along with a more aggressive treatment of pain has come a huge increase in the use of opioid pain medicines.
The misuse of these medicines, such as methadone, oxycodone (brand name OxyContin) and hydrocodone (brand name Vicodin) has been contributing to more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
In addition to reducing pain, these drugs can suppress breathing enough to cause death if they’re taken in excess.

2. Misuse of benzodiazepines such as Valium and Xanax accounted to 272,000 emergency department visits in 2008.

3. Overdosing on Acetaminophin (brand name Tylenol): 30,000 people in the U.S. are hospitalized from acetaminophen overdoses a year, and about half are unintentional.

4. Medication dosing devices that come with over-the-counter liquid medicines, many of which are given to young children, have been the subject of numerous reports of accidental overdoses.

The FDA’s Safe Use Initiative estimates there are as many as 3 billion prescriptions written every year, and reminds us that all medications come with inherent risks.

Unintentional drug poisoning deaths rose five-fold between 1990 and 2006, according to the CDC.

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