This is in response to the article “Prescription painkiller sales on rise in Maine” (April 29).

It is truly alarming to read about such a large increase in heavy duty medications that were prescribed for pain in Lewiston during the past 10 years.

Also, in the same section of the Sunday paper was a related article about the prescription take-back Saturday program that occurred in Maine and in which my family, participated.

My wife delivered various medications, both current and outdated, that we had accumulated. Included in those medications were approximately 58 oxycodone tablets that we had from two physicians that were written for pain while recovering from surgery.

We used a very limited number of the pills during our recovery and the remainder are now out of our home and, thankfully, disposed of properly.

Perhaps physicians should consider writing prescriptions for a smaller number of painkillers and, if patients should require more during their recovery, they then follow up with their physicians who can review the patients’ histories prior to writing more prescriptions.

Doing so would help control the unnecessary amount of prescription painkillers being made available to patients, possibly averting dependency issues in some cases. It would also help households from accumulating unneeded medications that require specialized disposal methods.

Peter Lavallee, Lewiston