During 2014, a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States, representing a 1-year increase of 6.5%, from 13.8 per 100,000 persons in 2013 to 14.7 per 100,000 persons in 2014.
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These efforts build on work that began in 2010, when the President released his first National Drug Control Strategy, which emphasized the need for action to address opioid use disorders and overdose, while ensuring that individuals with pain receive safe, effective treatment.
People from all ethnic groups, ages and sexes were affected by drug overdose across the nation but the states which experienced significant increase in the rate of drug overdose deaths from 2013 to 2014 include Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Drug overdoses – particularly those from prescription opioid painkillers – has become a priority issue for the Atlanta-based CDC.
The biggest increase in deaths was from from synthetic opioids, which went up 80%. Deaths from heroin overdoses increased 26%.
More than six out of 10 drug overdose deaths in 2014 involved opioids, including opioid pain relievers and heroin.
Drug overdose deaths increased 137 percent since 2000, hitting an all-time high in 2014. The agency this week released draft guidelines for family doctors, encouraging them to be more careful about prescribing opioids for chronic pain.
The CDC is now in the midst of a battle over prescription drugs. OH saw an increase of 18.3 percent in its rate from 2013 to 2014, the eighth-highest increase nationwide. CDC analyzed recent multiple cause-of-death mortality data to examine current trends and characteristics of drug overdose deaths, including the types of opioids associated with drug overdose deaths. “This report also shows how important it is that law enforcement intensify efforts to reduce the availability of heroin, illegal fentanyl, and other illegal opioids”.
Heroin, painkillers and the like accounted for more than half of those.
Recommendations ranged from working to better track prescriptions, and marking the overdose antidote drug, known as Narcan, more widely available.
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Drug overdoses are killing more people in the USA now than ever before. The new report, however, suggested that heroin-related death had something to do with the drug’s accessibility.
