How many prescription addicts in the usa

I have read some reports where an estimated 2.2 million Americans use prescription meds for non-medical uses in a year.

yea sad but true i am one of them:(

There are way more! I know so many people that would never admit it publicly so how to they account for them. Even my partner is an addict and no one would ever suspect it.

Prescription drug abuse is definitely common--according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2008 15.2 million Americans age 12 or older admitted to taking a prescription drug for a non-medical purpose at least one in the year prior to the survey. An estimated 20% of the U.S. population has abused prescription drugs at some point during their lifetime. There were about 741,425 ER visits in 2006 that involved the non-medical use of prescription or OTC drugs or dietary supplements.

Abuse isn't the same thing as addiction, and addiction numbers are harder to come by--it's much easier to survey people and ask anonymously whether they've abused prescription drugs than it is to determine if someone is addicted. But drug abuse and addiction are related, so these statistics sure make it look like prescription drug addiction is a big problem in the U.S.