Americans just aren’t getting the message about prescription drug abuse. A new national report shows that roughly half the adults interviewed in a random survey don’t understand that prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, morphine, codeine, Demoral and methadone are fully as addictive as heroin.

About half the 1,500 people surveyed also indicated that heroin addiction is more dangerous, both to the individual user and the community he or she lives in, than addiction to prescription opioids and other controlled substances.

In fact, these drugs are identical to heroin in the way they treat pain and in the way they can lead to serious abuse and addiction. “Even though opioid painkillers such as oxycodone or morphine are appropriately prescribed to treat pain, their abuse affects the brain in the same way, and to the same extent, as heroin,” the report states.

The study was funded by Reckitt Benckheiser Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Suboxone, a drug-substitute treatment for opioid addiction similar to methadone. Schulman, Roncas and Bucuvalas, an independent research firm, conducted the survey and analyzed the results. The report will be released online today at www.srbi.com/nationalsurveyonpainkillers.html

According to the study report, 4.4 million Americans abuse prescription painkillers, and opioid painkillers are the fastest growing drug of abuse by teenagers.

Bangor psychologist John Keefe, who specializes in counseling individuals and families with substance abuse problems, said Tuesday evening that most of those he sees are unaware of the highly addictive nature of the drugs they experiment with. In fact, Keefe said, most people in the community don’t recognize the potential danger inherent in abusing even legally prescribed medications.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Whether you ask adults or kids or teachers or, frighteningly enough, doctors, people have the same idea that if it’s a medicine, it must be safe. When you add the distorted adolescent mind-set that ‘I’m going to live forever and addiction can’t happen to me,’ it’s truly horrifying what happens. But we’re not taking very serious steps to avoid it.”

Keefe said drug companies should be prohibited from advertising their products directly to consumers on television and through other media. He lamented the recent trend away from government-funded studies of drug safety to industry-funded studies, which he said fail to adequately report adverse results. And, Keefe said, even the family doctor, “the last bastion of objectivity” doesn’t have time either to adequately review drug safety data or to assess patients for potential abuse of prescription drugs.

At the Maine Office of Substance Abuse, Director Kim Johnson agreed that many Mainers believe that “if it comes from a pharmacy, it must be safe.” It’s not until after an individual or a loved one becomes addicted that people realize the danger, she said. More education is the key, she said – including educating lawmakers and others who make public policy about access to medications and access to treatment. “They’re just a subset of the general population,” she pointed out.

Johnson said doctors also need to learn to differentiate between patients’ legitimate pain control needs and drug-seeking behaviors, and to intervene in an individual’s drug and alcohol use before it reaches crisis level. Raising general public awareness of the dangers of abusing prescription drugs should be a consistent priority for government, schools and the health care community, she said.

Johnson said about 3,000 Mainers a year seek medical treatment for addiction to opioid drugs, including illegal substances such as heroin as well as prescription medications.