STATISTICS & TRENDS

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Heavy Burden of Drugs that Killed Tom Petty

January 19, 2018: The Los Angeles County Coroner released the results of the toxicology analysis for Tom Petty. His death has now been ruled an accidental drug overdose, with opioids and benzodiazepines causing him to stop breathing.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Birth of a Drug-Addled Nation

How did America get to the point of losing 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses in one year? We’ve traveled a long road to get to this point and in truth, most people haven’t even noticed the journey.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New CDC Statistics Reveal Deepening Drug Epidemic

New evidence compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that we do not yet have the opioid epidemic or the loss of life from drug overdoses under control yet. We’re not even close.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: What Has to Happen to Return Prescription Control to the Right Hands? Part III

Let’s take a look at an ideal world—a world where drugs are only given when they are truly needed to improve health, where there is no undue or skewed influence causing patients to ask for specific types of medication, where doctors use nothing but...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: The Effects of Misplaced Control, Part II

When doctors prescribe any drug, it should only be done to improve a patient’s health, right? Over the last few decades, prescribing practices have begun to be influenced too heavily by the wrong parties. Millions of Americans have suffered as a result.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: Returning Control of Prescription Drugs to the Right Hands, Part I

Most Americans know we’re in the midst of a deadly opioid epidemic. But few realize that control of the rate and volume of prescribing addictive painkillers has moved into the wrong hands. Get educated now on this vital topic.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Social Norms We Must Change to Save Lives

There are hundreds of social norms shaping the way we think about alcohol and drug use use. But are norms dangerous? Useful? Rational? Are some of them leading to a loss of life? Should we re-evalute the norms we accept without even thinking about them?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Failed Senate Investigation Could Have Saved Lives

In 2012, the Senate Finance Committee opened an investigation that could have revealed a hidden influence contributing to the loss of thousands of American lives. IF the report on this investigation had ever been published.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why NOW Is the Most Dangerous Time in History to be Addicted to Opioids

Fentanyl as a painkiller is not new but as an illicit drug pervading the American drug market, it is a threat that’s only a few years old. And a deadly, deadly threat it is, too…

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Monitoring the Future Survey of Our Youth: Snapshot of Drug and Alcohol Use

Do you think that high school senior that’s ready to graduate has remained drug-free? If you do, there’s a 50-50 chance that you’re right.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Will Blue Lights Succeed in Stopping Pennsylvania Overdoses?

Some businesses with public restrooms are installing intense blue lights to prevent overdoses because they make it hard for drug users to locate their blue veins. How much will this measure help prevent overdoses?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

California Leads the Effort to Reduce Opioid Prescribing

On November 9, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1048 Health care: Pain Management and Schedule II Drug Prescriptions into law. The two provisions of this law were simple but indicate a major shift in attitudes toward prescribing opioid painkillers.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Meth: The Biggest Problem Drug for Arkansas

Arkansas is a very rural state with widely scattered population centers. These remote areas permit the infiltration of Mexican drug cartels who bring addictive, deadly substances into the state.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Hospitals Join Movement to Demand Pharmaceutical Company Responsibility

In state after state, Attorneys General have been filing lawsuits directed at pharmaceutical corporations they claim are responsible for our current epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction. What benefits could result if these lawsuits are won?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Is Our “Pill-For-Everything” Mentality Damaging Our Young Adults?

On college campuses, the misuse of prescription painkillers, stimulants and alcohol has forced schools to rally around those in recovery. But why are so many students having this problem?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Latest Figures on Drug and Alcohol Deaths Reveal Surprising Statistics

The Centers on Disease Control and Prevention just released figures on the number of Americans we lost to drugs or alcohol in 2015. How much worse were these numbers compared to 1999?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Rural Areas No Longer Immune to Drug Overdose Threat

A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that rural areas are no longer safe havens from drug overdose death because the rate of OD deaths in rural areas has just surpassed the rate in cities.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Have Overdose Deaths Finally Maxed Out?

Many people are waiting for the day when drug overdose deaths max out and begin to decline. Have we reached that point yet? Not even close.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Should Drug Addiction Prevent Someone from Buying a Gun?

Guns and addiction to alcohol or drugs could be a very bad mix. Should states allow a person using or addicted to drugs or alcohol to possess or use a gun?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Take-Back Day 2017: Close to MILLION Pounds of Unneeded Drugs Collected by DEA

Why has the Drug Enforcement Administration collected more than nine million pounds of unneeded drugs in the last 14 years? Are Americans really being over-drugged?