STATISTICS & TRENDS

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Meth Surge Now Rivals Opioids for National Headlines

Most of the headlines I see on America’s addiction crisis are related to the opioid epidemic, and rightly so. Opiates account for a significant portion of our nation's drug crisis. But it’s not the only drug to be aware of.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

HIV Outbreaks, Opioid Misuse, and Small Town America

When we hear the words, “HIV outbreak” odds are we think of Africa, or maybe the United States in the early to mid-1990s. Even if we consider an “HIV outbreak” as occurring on American soil, we instantly assume cloud-shrouded high rises, sprawling...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

What We Can Learn from the Overdose Capital of the U.S.

I saw a headline yesterday that read “City with the Most Per Capita Overdose Deaths in the Nation Begins to Recover.” It caught my eye.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Michigan’s Drug Problem and What a New Grant Could Do to Stem the Tide of Addiction

Throughout our history, the individual states of the United States of America have gone through their ups and downs. Sometimes these issues have mirrored what was going on in the country at large, and sometimes they were unique to the state.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Taking a New Look at Alcohol Consumption

We know that there are unintended consequences of alcohol consumption. We know that drinking alcohol can lead to poor choices, drunk driving, fights, public drunkenness, legal issues, unhealthy sexual decisions, bad hangovers, failed drug tests, career...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Did Hawaii Become the Meth Capital of the U.S. and How Can We Help?

Crystal meth. Meth. Ice. Speed. Crank. Chalk. Glass. Wash. Pookie. These are all slang names for methamphetamine, a drug which grows in global public use every year. Across most parts of the United States as well, use of meth has increased.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Three Countries and Their Drug Problems

We hear on the news these days that the U.S. struggles with an “opioid epidemic,” “an addiction crisis,” or a “national public health emergency.” All of this is true. But what we don’t hear about are the addiction struggles of other countries.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Work, Community, Family, and How Social and Economic Disparities Affect Addiction

“Addiction does not discriminate.” How many times have we heard that line? But what if I said to you that addiction does discriminate? What if I told you that discrimination in addiction is part of the fundamental reasons why we have such a cataclysmic...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Is Criminalizing Drug Use During Pregnancy the Answer?

I was surfing through U.S. News the other day when I came across a news story that really caught my eye. U.S. News posted an article titled, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules Pregnant Women Abusing Drugs is Not Child Abuse.”Having worked in addiction...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Can We Mobilize to Reduce the Opioid Epidemic?

In light of what may be the country’s worst substance abuse epidemic, the American people look high and low for answers on how they can do their part to resolve the addiction crisis. This is especially true if they had addiction touch their own life...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Can We Use Diplomatic Solutions for Reducing Drug Trafficking?

Let’s talk about diplomacy, a word that gets lost in translation too many times to count. More specifically, let’s talk about diplomacy and how the U.S. could use a diplomatic methodology to reduce drug trafficking from foreign nations.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New Study Finds that Fentanyl Is Grossly Overprescribed

The term “over-prescribing” is one we hear with frequency today. Over-prescribing is a phenomenon where a doctor administers a prescription for too much of a drug. Such can manifest by a doctor giving a patient a medicine for too long…

STATISTICS & TRENDS

2019: Caring for Women Must Include Reversing Losses to Overdoses

Ensuring that women in the United States and around the world receive equal protection must also include reversing our current radical increases in female overdose deaths.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

El Chapo Found Guilty on ALL Counts—What That Means for the Drug Trade

New York Supreme Court In a breaking news announcement, the notorious drug kingpin, Joaquin Guzman (known as El Chapo) was found guilty on all ten counts at his trial in New York. Joaquin has been in prison for three years, with his trial only just recently...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Curtailing Prescription Opioid Misuse Won’t Be Enough to Stop the Opioid Epidemic

When we as a nation face a significant problem or threat that we struggle to resolve, we tend to err in one of two ways. Either we become overwhelmed by the issue as a whole, feeling more or less incapable in addressing it, or we get too focused in on...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Increase in Pet Painkiller Prescriptions Could Indicate More Owner Misuse

Because of a significant increase in painkiller prescriptions to pet owners, veterinarians are being warned to watch for some owners who might be consuming these drugs instead of giving them to their pets.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opioid Overdoses on the Rise Once Again amongst Youth

Our teens face various struggles, challenges and seemingly difficult situations that come with the overall experience of growing up. We’ve all been there, and we’ve probably seen these struggles mirrored in the faces of our own teen children and our...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Criminal Prosecution For Drug Crimes Should Result in Drug Rehabilitation—Not Jail

There was a recent article in the Washington Post which caught my eye. The report was about county prosecutor candidates competing for votes in Virginia. The article discussed the layered nuances of criminality and drug use.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Synthetic Opioids — The Drugs Responsible for Most of the Overdose Deaths in 2017

The U.S. struggles in the grip of an opioid crisis—perhaps the worst addiction epidemic that our nation has ever seen. And in the last few years, a new strain of opioids has entered the scene, creating a surge in the addiction crisis and a resulting...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why Are We Losing So Many Older Women to Drug Overdose Deaths?

A recent analysis of drug overdose deaths shows a shocking increase in the number of older American women who are lost to overdoses of prescription opioids or even heroin and fentanyl. It’s vital to understand how this happens so these losses can be...