UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opiate Addiction Surges in Suburban America

It's no mystery that drug and alcohol addiction statistics surged through the first two decades of the 21st-century. As the drug problem grew (mainly involving opiates), it began to affect demographics that previously had very minimal interactions with...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Important Update for Families from the 2019 Drug Threat Assessment

Every year, the Drug Enforcement Administration reports on the biggest drug threats in our country because those threats never stay the same two years in a row. These annual reports can arm parents with enough information to warn their children of the...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

What Was Johnson & Johnson's Role in Triggering the Opioid Epidemic?

Oklahoma's lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson revealed the role this company played in encouraging the too-liberal use of opioid painkillers. Witness testimony also pointed to the special way this company profited from increased prescribing – of their...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

As Jobs are Lost, Addiction Statistics Soar

People turn to drugs and alcohol for many different reasons. For as many people that there are who are addicted, there are just as many reasons why those people use substances. Addicts are unique individuals. Each one will have his or her story of why...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opioid Lawsuits – Where Should Settlement Money Go?

An October 2019 article in USA Today focused on how critical it is that opioid lawsuit settlement dollars are used to treat addiction. This should be a given, to use settlements from pharma companies to treat addicts (especially considering that many addicts...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Recession, Poverty, and Substance Abuse Leads to a Drop in Life Expectancy in Great Britain

A headline in the New York Times reads, “Shortchanged: Why British Life Expectancy Has Stalled.” With just a glance at the headline, I was hit with a wave of deja vu. Then I remembered I’d written about this subject before, except in the context...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drug Abuse Leads to an Increase in Working-Age Deaths

Over the last few years, several articles, research papers, and studies have been published, all of which indicate a decline in life expectancy for the American people. That’s something to be concerned about. In one of the wealthiest, most technologically...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

As Demand for Illicit Substances Grows, Drug Distribution Networks Continue to Evolve

When my parents and grandparents were growing up, there were only a couple of drugs readily available: alcohol and tobacco. Some people slipped into alcoholism and others may have ruined their health by smoking too much and too long.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why is the Northeast Hit Hardest by Opiate Deaths?

It is no mystery that the United States is struggling with a drug addiction crisis. In October of 2017, the opioid epidemic alone (just one facet of America's addiction problem) was declared a Public Health Emergency. Drug addiction has spread across the...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Do We Reverse the Drug Problem by 2025?

An article published by NPR and titled “Jump In Overdoses Shows Opioid Epidemic Has Worsened” sheds light on the condition of the drug crisis in America. This article points out how the drug crisis has surged forward in recent years, making it even...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Illicit Fentanyl Trafficking Patterns Shift with China Still a Major Player

Keeping drugs out of our country requires monitoring the shifts in production and trafficking patterns. Recently, the way fentanyl has been coming into the U.S. has made one of those shifts.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why Does the U.S. Prescribe More Drugs than Other Countries?

A striking report from U.S. News revealed that American surgical patients are nine times more likely to receive a prescription for opioid pain relievers than Swedish patients. Even bringing the focus closer to home and comparing U.S. prescribing rates...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

One Year of Overdose Death Decreases: How Good is This News?

For the first time in decades, the number of Americans lost to drug overdoses has begun to decline. Is this cause for celebration? Not yet. Not when you know the reason for the decline. Did you hear about this? For the last year, the number of overdose...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Treatment, Not Incarceration Is The Solution To Drug Addiction

The United States differs from other wealthy nations in that we prefer to incarcerate drug addicts rather than provide effective long term treatment for their addictions.. Take a cursory glance at the Federal Bureau of Prisons’statistics on rates of...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New Data Suggests Mass Incarceration Contributed to the Opioid Crisis

The American incarceration system earns a fair amount of criticism amongst Americans and foreigners alike. And there’s some good reasons for that. For one thing, the U.S. incarcerates its citizens at a rate exceeding all other countries in the world.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Addiction Statistics Today—Where Does the Drug Problem Stand Now?

One of the challenges that we face when addressing our country's drug problem is a lack of relevant and current data about the drug problem. It seems that every time we research the drug crisis, we find that the majority of published data on the subject...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Addiction in the World

When we examine drug and alcohol addiction as a severe humanitarian crisis, the first place we’re going to look is within our own families. We’ll check close to home, as this is the area that impacts our lives the most.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

An Overview of Nations, Looking at the Prescription Drug Problem on a Global Scale

Drug addiction in the United States is an expanding problem. While we might not want to admit it, much of what created the addiction epidemic that we face today was the rapid expansion of the pharmaceutical industry, the lack of regulation in that industry,...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Excessive Dental Opioid Prescribing an Anomaly in the U.S.

It is safe to say that treating oral pain problems is something that dentists often have to do. But how they go about treating such symptoms is another matter entirely.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Slow Progress in Fighting The Addiction Epidemic

After working with hundreds of people who struggled with addiction over the last eight years, I’ve often wondered if our country’s drug problem has an end in sight. I’ve seen addiction in my fellow man in one form or another all my life.