Opioid crisis drives highest number of U.S. overdose deaths on record
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported Friday that about a half million people have died from drug overdoses over the last 15 years. Butler County officials have also seen a switch from the more tightly regulated prescription painkillers to the cheaper, more accessible heroin, the report said.
States with statistically significant increases in the rate of drug overdose deaths from 2013 to 2014 included Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In 2013, more than 8,000 people died from heroin overdoses, but almost double that number died from overdosing on painkillers.
The United States is experiencing an epidemic of drug overdose (poisoning) deaths.
Because it is the most populous state, California led the way with the most overdose deaths over all with 4,500, with OH coming in second at 2,700.
“One in 100 people will die in this state of an opioid overdose”.
Affordable heroin has become more widely available: Heroin costs about one-fifth as much as most prescription opioids. 80% deaths past year were due to synthetic opioids. CDC believes that the health professionals must be equipped with more resources and tools, as well as be more capable to give better prescription guidelines, to help patients make more informed decisions.
Imperial Valley News In other news, The most commonly prescribed opioid pain relievers, those classified as natural or semi-synthetic opioids such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, continue to be involved in more overdose deaths than any other opioid type.
For the nation, overdose deaths last year surpassed 47,000, up 7 percent from the previous year.
The report also highlighted the increase in the number of deaths involving illicitly made fentanyl, which is often marketed as heroin or added to heroin. It also suggested they only prescribe the smallest supply of the drugs possible, usually three days or less for acute pain, the AP points out. Since the turn of the century, the rate of deaths from overdoses has skyrocketed 137 percent, while the rate for deaths involving opioids has jumped 200 percent.
The CDC points to a dramatic rise in pain reliever prescriptions; more than four times as many prescriptions are written for them today as in 1999.
The CDC recommended a mix of limiting opioid access with law enforcement, increasing substance abuse treatment, improving access to naloxone (a drug that counteracts overdoses), and otherwise stopping users from becoming addicts.
“Heroin is bad enough, but when you lace it with fentanyl, it’s like dropping a nuclear bomb on the situation”, Mary Lou Leary, a deputy director in the White House’s office of National Drug Control Policy, told NPR.