Top 10 US States with Drug Overdose Deaths, Updated Ap 13, 2023. Amer. Addiction Centers. Ed.
In 2015, drug overdose fatalities reached an all-time high, as over 50,000 Americans died from one within the year, CBS News reports. Opioid drugs, both prescription painkillers and heroin, are the driving force for this, as more than 6 out of 10 overdose deaths involved an opioid drug, CNN publishes.
Opioid abuse, addiction, and overdose have reached epidemic levels in the US in recent years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that 91 people die every day in the US from an opioid overdose. Prescription painkillers, heroin, and the extremely potent synthetic opioid fentanyl are often culprits of opioid overdose fatalities. Mixing opioids with benzodiazepines (e.g., Valium, Xanax, Klonopin, Ativan, etc.) greatly increases the risk for suffering an overdose, and it’s common that multiple drugs are involved in overdose deaths.
* The CDC reports that the states hardest hit by drug overdose in 2015 are:
West Virginia: 41.5 per 100,000 people
New Hampshire: 34.3 per 100,000 people
Kentucky: 29.9 per 100,000 people
Ohio: 29.9 per 100,000 people
Rhode Island: 28.2 per 100,000 people
Pennsylvania: 26.3 per 100,000 people
Massachusetts: 25.7 per 100,000 people
New Mexico: 25.3 per 100,000 people
Utah: 23.4 per 100,000 people
Tennessee: 22.2 per 100,000 people
1. West Virgina: West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports that 818 people died of a drug overdose in West Virginia in 2016, and close to 90 percent of these deaths involved at least one opioid drug. This is an increase over previous years and equates to roughly one West Virginian dying by drug overdose every 10 hours, the Times West Virginia reports.
A relatively small state with a population of around 1.8 million, as published by the United States Census Bureau, that high number of overdose deaths has a significant impact. Aware of the toll drug overdoses are taking on the community and population of West Virginia, President Obama announced an administrative action in 2016 that allotted $1.7 million in federal funds to community substance abuse treatment centers in West Virginia in an attempt to expand access to treatment to its citizens, per West Virginia Public Broadcasting. By improving treatment and prevention methods, the overdose rates may be able to be slowed...
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/overdose/top-10-us-states
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