CDC Says More People Are Dying Of Drug Overdoses Than Ever Before

Natural and semi synthetic opioids which include common pain relievers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone caused more deaths than any other opioid type in 2014. “This is a big win for the opioid lobby”, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, co-founder of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, a group that wants to see less use of painkillers by doctors, according to the AP.

“The impact of prescription drug and opioid abuse is being felt in every community across MI”.

Opioid overdoses (including heroin) now make up the largest percentage of overdose deaths in 2014 – 61 percent of all deaths.

In 2013, more than 8,000 people died from heroin overdoses, but almost double that number died from overdosing on painkillers. In 2014, there were approximately one and a half times more drug overdose deaths in the United States than deaths from motor vehicle crashes. In 2000, opioid and heroin substances, including methadone, accounted for 3 deaths per 100,000 of the population.

Since 2000, the overall drug overdose death rate has doubled: from 6.2 deaths per 100,000 people, to 14.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2014. Many of these overdoses are believed to involve illicitly-made fentanyl, a short-acting opioid.

Those deaths involve heroin, painkillers, sedatives, cocaine and other legal and illegal drugs. “To curb these trends and save lives, we must help prevent addiction and provide support and treatment to those who suffer from opioid use disorders”, Frieden said.

Jane Ballantyne, MD, of the University of Washington, agreed that the increase in illicit fentanyl is a contributor, as is the price drop in other illicit opioids such as black-tar heroin from Mexico. Opioid deaths rose steadily through the 1990s and involved commonly prescribed pain medications.

Low-priced heroin has become more widely available: Heroin costs about one-fifth as much as most prescription opioids. Heroin and prescription pain relievers took…

More than that, people addicted to opioids should have access to treatment, including access to naloxone, a drug that can reverse the symptoms in case of an opioid overdose. Snyder, under the state’s newly formed Michigan Prescription Drug and Opioid Abuse Task Force, released more than two dozen recommendations to tackle state’s drug abuse ‘crisis’. It suggested public health agencies, medical examiners and coroners, and law-enforcement agencies work collaboratively to improve the detection of these outbreaks through improved investigation and testing.