Opioid abuse propels record US deaths from overdose – CDC

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.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the overall tally last week.

The states with the highest rate of deaths resulted from opioid overdose are Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Mexico and West Virginia.

The CDC report described the drug overdose deaths as an “emerging threat to public health and safety”. According to the CDC, the increase in synthetic opioid deaths coincided with increased reports by law enforcement of illicitly manufactured fentanyl.

The biggest increase in deaths was from from synthetic opioids, which went up 80%.

A year ago in the United States more people died from drug overdoses than ever before, according to a recent report put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to CDC records, In the United States, overdose deaths surpassed 47,000 last year which is a rise of nearly 7% in comparison to the cases registered the previous year.

Opioid painkillers accounted to get a nine percent increase of departures in 2014 to 813 individuals.

Heroin overdoses in particular have climbed dramatically-more than tripling in the past four years.

Although the rate of heroin deaths is rising sharply, it’s still significantly outnumbered by the number of deaths caused by prescription painkillers.

“These findings indicate that the opioid overdose epidemic is worsening”. “In addition, efforts are needed to protect persons already dependent on opioids from overdose and other harms”.

Cheap heroin has become more widely available: Heroin costs about one-fifth as much as most prescription opioids.

“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”, Frieden added. It recommends stricter guidelines for prescribing pain killers, expanded availability and wider access to naloxone, an antidote for opioid-related overdoses.

Recommendations in the proposal cover when to initiate or continue opioids for chronic pain; how to select the drugs, dosage and duration; and how to assess the risks of use. But the pushback has been hard from patients, doctors and the drug industry, as well as groups such as the U.S. Pain Foundation and the American Academy of Pain Management.