STATISTICS & TRENDS

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...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Sackler Case Comes to a Close; Final Analysis and the Importance of Holding Pharma Companies Accountable

Consider this: Purdue Pharmaceuticals/the Sacklers versus thousands of plaintiffs nationwide. It was one of the most closely watched pharmaceutical litigations of our time, and it just came to a close. While there were some small victories in the case,...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Taking a Longer View: The Real Story of Our Overdose Losses

Truly understanding our losses to drug overdoses means taking a longer look at the numbers. That’s where the tragedy becomes crystal clear, along with the necessity to take more immediate action.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Use and Addiction: The Financial Burden to Communities and Individuals

Anyone who has loved an addicted person knows: Addiction comes with enormous costs. Some of these costs are emotional and mental. The addicted person suffers from the overwhelming compulsion to use drugs and the physical sickness and deterioration that...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Would Eliminating Addiction Improve America’s Educational Success?

Heavy drug or alcohol abuse or addiction are tough at any age. When it affects those who should be completing their educations, it can derail the entirety of their future lives.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Every State Now Has a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program

Public health experts usually agree that preventive efforts should be used as a front-line defense against health problems. In the case of drug and alcohol addiction, Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs are useful preventive tools that states can use...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Women Now Drink Just as Much as Men, Why is This?

Recent findings now reveal that women in America drink just as much alcohol as men do, effectively closing the traditional alcohol consumption gap that used to exist between women and men. Why has this occurred?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opioid Abuse Surged During the Pandemic – Treatment is the Answer for Those Now Addicted

There is compelling evidence that suggests opioid addiction and overdose rates soared during the Covid-19 pandemic. Was this a direct result of Covid-19? Or was it a continuation of America’s opioid addiction epidemic?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

A Rude Awakening – Researchers Use Wastewater to Measure Countries’ Drug Problems

If you were looking for an indicator that the human race has a problem with drug abuse, research uncovering detectable traces of drugs in urban wastewater might be a critical warning of just that. It sounds almost ludicrous to hear, but it’s true.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Supersized Alcopops – A Dangerous Alcoholic Beverage Marketed to Underage Consumers

Though alcohol is legal for adults 21 and older, alcohol is not a safe or healthy substance to consume. Case in point, new research shows how a particular type of alcohol is particularly appealing to and dangerous for… underage drinkers.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Are Medical Practitioners Still Overprescribing Opioids?

The foremost commitment of any medical practitioner is to do no harm, and the vast majority of physicians hold to that. But what happens when the very drugs doctors prescribe are harmful?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Death is Not the Only Negative Effect of Alcohol Misuse

When people consider drug or alcohol addiction, the most attention-grabbing, headline-worthy material is always the number of deaths caused by drinking or drug abuse. But as a recent study shows, death is only one of the serious and harmful outcomes of...