STATISTICS & TRENDS

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Pharma Companies Settle to Resolve Opioid Lawsuits

Several major pharma litigations are currently making their way through U.S. courts. One such case just came to a close, unfortunately releasing several pharma giants from all legal liability regarding their role in the devastating opioid epidemic.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why Has Binge Drinking in College Been Normalized?

Overindulging in alcohol in college has become so socially acceptable that it is almost seen as a right of passage into adulthood. The problem with normalizing binge drinking is that it doesn’t address the genuine dangers of overdrinking.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Western and Midwestern U.S. Hard Hit by Fentanyl Overdoses

For much of the 2010s, fentanyl addiction and overdoses surged in regional areas like the Northeast, Appalachia, and the Southeast. At the time, many experts believed fentanyl addiction and overdose would remain a localized crisis, not a national one....

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New Threat to Watch For: Unwashed Poppy Seed Consumption

Clinicians and families alike may not be aware of the risk posed by consumption of a readily available type of poppy seed. Despite this lack of awareness, this seed can result in addiction, overdose and death.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Over 100,000 Lives Lost to Drugs; CDC Finalizes Overdose Fatalities for 2020

The United States just passed a grim milestone, the first time in recorded history when over 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in one year. It’s a painful wake-up call, and a call to action that something must be done about the drug addiction...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New Developments in the Sackler Case Suggest More Needs to be Done to Hold Pharma Magnates Accountable

In the late-1990s and early-2000s, pharmaceutical manufacturers like Purdue Pharma aggressively marketed addictive drugs such as OxyContin, pushing doctors to prescribe them. Today, though it’s known that these companies helped create America’s opioid...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The U.S. is Losing a City Every Year to Drug and Alcohol Addiction

It may seem unbelievable at first, but the title is no exaggeration. America’s addiction epidemic has become so widespread that the United States now loses the population equivalent of an entire city each year to fatal drug overdoses.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Alcohol is Now Responsible For More Than 95,000 Deaths Per Year

Excessive alcohol use is responsible for more than 95,000 deaths in the United States each year, or 261 deaths per day.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Overdose Deaths Jumped Nearly 30 Percent During the Pandemic

Many public health experts believed that, partially because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 was going to be the worst year yet for drug overdoses. They were right, and final numbers for the death toll exceeded even the most gloomy predictions.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Awareness of Alcohol Addiction Soars, But Treatment Does Not

Even though Americans are aware that alcohol abuse is a problem in the U.S., the treatment gap is wider than ever. Reporting suggests that the gap recently went from 10% of alcohol addicts receiving treatment down to just 6%. What must be done to address...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

A Look at College Campus Drinking and Drug Use

Every parent wants a safe and rewarding college experience for their children. But when alcohol misuse and drug abuse are ongoing problems on college campuses which are further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, how can parents ensure their children’s...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

On What Dark Day Did the U.S. Reach 100,000 Annual Overdose Deaths?

While America has been preoccupied with other situations, our drug overdose losses have kept mounting. Using statistics published by the CDC we can calculate the date on which America passed a horrific milestone: 100,000 overdoses losses in one twelve-month...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

South Carolina Prosecutor Sends Addicts to Treatment, Not Jail

A South Carolina prosecutor is using a federal grant to send drug addicts who’ve committed nonviolent crimes into treatment programs, not incarceration. It is becoming more and more common for people addicted to drugs to be directed towards treatment,...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How the Sackler Family Got Away with Denying Any Responsibility in the Opioid Epidemic

The litigation of Purdue Pharma/the Sacklers is now over. One of the key aspects of the case that deserves full scrutiny is that Purdue’s owners threatened to withdraw settlement funds if they did not achieve personal immunity. In the end, they won.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Are Drug and Alcohol Addiction Fatalities the Next American Epidemic?

Words and terms like “epidemic,” “pandemic,” and “national health emergency” have become commonplace in American society. These terms often make one think of the dangerous spread of communicable diseases and illnesses. Yet with almost 200,000...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Drug and Alcohol Abuse Are Invading Our Workplaces

Employees struggling with drug or alcohol abuse rob every company of their profitability as well as risking their own lives. When companies take on the role of identifying abuse and offering help, they can save valued employees and increase their own productivity.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Per Capita Deaths from Substance Abuse Now Higher in Rural America

It’s shocking but true. In several states across the U.S., when fatalities are measured per capita, more Americans are dying from drug-related harm in counties designated as rural than in counties designated as urban.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Indigenous Communities are Robbed of Their Land and Their Lives by Drug Trafficking and Addiction

Indigenous Americans in both North and South America spent much of the last 500 years subjected to land theft at the hands of settler-colonial powers. Today’s Indigenous communities face a similar existential crisis, this time in the form of land grabs...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Impact of Drug Use and Addiction on America’s Health

We know that families suffer terrible losses as a result of drug or alcohol abuse and addiction. But how does this situation affect our nation's health as a whole? We will catalog some of the impacts of this social problem.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

CDC Guidelines Suggest More Conservative Opioid Prescribing, but Is it Enough?

In the wake of the ongoing opioid addiction and overdose epidemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published conservative prescribing guidelines for U.S. doctors to follow. And while there have been some welcome reductions in prescribing...