The report, released Friday, says the Commonwealth had 2,426 overdose deaths in 2013 and 2,732 in 2014, marking a 12.9 percent increase over that period.
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The report warned of a surging opioid “epidemic” that is ripping American families and communities apart.
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“Efforts to improve safer prescribing of prescription opioids must be intensified”, the CDC report stated.
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Which states have growing problems with overdoses?
“The sharp increase in deaths involving synthetic opioids, other than methadone, in 2014 coincided with law enforcement reports of increased availability of illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a synthetic opioid; however, illicitly manufactured fentanyl can not be distinguished from prescription fentanyl in death certificate data”, the report reads.
Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses in both males and females has increased by 137 per cent and deaths from opioids have increased by 300 per cent from the same year.
The states of West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and OH had the highest percentage in overdose death.
More Americans are using opiate painkillers: Research suggests that one of the reasons that abusing opiates can make people more susceptible to future heroin abuse is because the drugs act similarly in the brain. Because fentanyl is combined with heroin or straight-up sold as fentanyl, the CDC theorizes that “illicit fentanyl-associated deaths might represent an emerging and troubling feature of the rise in illicit opioid overdoses that has been driven by heroin”.
The report said more people die a year from drug related overdoses in the U.S. than they do from road traffic accidents, where fewer than 33,000 of crashes end in fatalities.
The number of deaths caused by a heroin overdose has tripled since 2010 to 10,574 in 2014, according to the agency.
The CDC released the overall tally last week.
The CDC then outlined some recommendations in how to reduce and eventually curb overdose death.
More persons died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2014 than during any previous year on record.
Another recommendation issued by the CDC is that public health agencies and law enforcement agencies have to work together to prevent the misuse of both prescription and illicit opioids and address the issue which threatens the public health and safety.
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In addition to drug treatment, the CDC urged increased use of naloxone, an overdose antidote.
