CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Deaths from medication mistakes at home, such as actor Heath Ledger's accidental overdose, rose dramatically during the past two decades, an analysis of U.S. death certificates finds ~ CNN
Medication mistakes, drug errors, and even accidental overdose certainly sound less frightening than drug abuse, but as the reference to Heath Ledger suggests, they are no less deadly. Furthermore, much of the time these sanitized terms are outright misrepresentations; Heath Ledger didn’t die from an accidental overdose, he died because he was abusing prescription pain killers, psychiatric medications, and sleeping pills.
Accidently taking Oxycontin instead of aspirin could cause an accidental overdose, misreading a prescription would be a mistake, but self medicating with a hodgepodge of drugs is a premeditated willful act. While some may say it’s arguing semantics, I can’t help but wonder why there is no accountability when it comes to prescription drug abuse? Unlike the “blameless” act of “accidently” downing a methadone wafer with a tallboy, you don’t often hear of the cocaine error or heroin mistake.
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Ask any alcoholic or addict in recovery about the time they convinced them self and usually a prescription-writing doctor of a mental affliction. Most will fess up. Severe depression, bipolar disorders, chemical imbalances and even dissociative disorders are diagnoses that often follow the stellar acting performance of those of us so desperate to have something “more” than just an unsophisticated addiction. 
