Drug overdose deaths in the USA are up by a record-high rate.
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Despite efforts to fight the opioid epidemic, deaths from drug overdoses reached an all-time high in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths from heroin increased in 2014, continuing a sharp rise that has seen heroin overdoses triple since 2010.
Drug overdoses – particularly those from prescription opioid painkillers – has become a priority issue for the Atlanta-based CDC.
Over the past year, obituaries spotlighting victims of drug addiction have put faces to these statistics. Dr. R. Corey Waller, with Spectrum Health who is also a member of the state task force, said one in 100 people is expected to die in this state of an opioid overdose, which is catastrophic.
In the same vein, recent exposés by the New York Times and NJ.com have shone a light on the pervasive use of heroine in suburban communities like Staten Island, New York and parts of New Jersey.
Maine, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, North Dakota, New Mexico, Alabama, and Georgia all saw “statistically significant drug overdose death rates” from 2013 to 2014.
MI ranks 10th nationally in per capita prescription rates of opioid pain relievers and 18 in the nation for all overdose deaths. It recommends stricter guidelines for prescribing pain killers, expanded availability and wider access to naloxone, an antidote for opioid-related overdoses.
Rural West Virginia had one of the worse overdose rates in the US.
The use of synthetic opioids, like illicitly manufactured fentanyl, coincided with reports from law enforcement warning of increased availability of the drug. About 9% of these cases (or an increase of more than 750 deaths) were caused by opioid pain relievers including hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Opioid painkillers accounted to get a nine percent increase of departures in 2014 to 813 individuals. The count also included deaths involving powerful sedatives, cocaine and other legal and illicit drugs.
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The numbers are based on death certificates. “To curb these trends and save lives, we must help prevent addiction and provide support and treatment to those who suffer from opioid use disorder”, said the CDC’s Frieden in a press release.
