STATISTICS & TRENDS

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Car Crashes and Alcohol — Do We Need to Lower the Legal Alcohol Limit?

New research indicates that a significant percentage of alcohol-related driving fatalities occur when the driver was NOT over the legal drinking limit of 0.08%. Is it time to lower the drinking limit? Will doing so save lives on the road?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

“How Could They Let Them Die?”

Every day, in hundreds of cities across America, first responders save someone who’s overdosed on opioids. Incredibly, there’s many people who disagree with saving these lives, believing that the people became addicted should just be left alone to...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How a Surge in Opiate Misuse in the Netherlands Compares to the American Opiate Epidemic

For some time, the U.S. drug problem has seemed entirely unique. But now, similar problems are beginning to develop in Europe. How will European countries tackle their drug problems?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

A Comprehensive Look at Drug Use in Oklahoma

For some time, rural America was thought to be safe from the 21st-century addiction epidemic. That is no longer the case. Many mostly rural states are now in an addiction upheaval. Oklahoma, for example, has one of the fastest-growing meth problems in...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Ohio Among Top Four States for Opioid-Related Addictions and Death

We’re a long ways away from being “out of the woods“ when it comes to the opiate epidemic. In states like Ohio, the state with the highest number of opiate deaths in the nation, much work is left to do to combat the harmful effects of opioid addiction.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Young Adults are Dieing at an Alarming Rate from Preventable Causes

Dubbed “Deaths of Despair“ deaths attributed to the use of drugs or alcohol and suicides have increased by nearly 400% in the last 20 years.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Overdoses on the Rise—Prescription Drugs are a Major Concern for Teens

It’s important to make sure that teens and young adults have the best shot at a healthy, happy life. A big part of that means making sure they don’t experiment with drugs and alcohol. But when overdoses are on the rise, parents should implement new...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

What is the Real Effect of the Opiate Epidemic on Children?

The children are the future of society, the guarantee that the human race will go on into the future. Protecting their health is of the utmost importance. How has the opiate epidemic affected children? And what can be done to reverse those effects?

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

Alcohol Abuse in Alaska, America's Last Frontier

One would hardly think that in a land so remote, so beautiful, and, in many ways, so unforgiving, that alcohol addiction would rear its ugly head. But among a certain demographic of Alaska residents, alcohol addiction is a serious problem.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Meth Addiction Soars in South Dakota

South Dakota tried to raise awareness of their meth problem with a controversial ad campaign. They definitely got attention, but it might not have been the attention they were looking for. And at the end of the day, what's really being done to address...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Scotland's Overdose Epidemic – Finding the Correct Solution

Here's an eye-catching headline: “Where the Nurse Prescribes Heroin." One might think it was the headline to a fictional piece, a dystopian essay or novel on what life would be like if full-scale drug use permeated our society.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Safe Driving – The Importance of Getting There Alive

It's important to learn the truth about drunk and drugged driving, the harm involved, what precipitates such decisions, and what people can do to prevent the lethal phenomena of under-the-influence driving.

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

Should State Governments Regulate Alcohol Consumption?

It’s clear that consuming alcohol can be harmful. In fact, anything beyond infrequent and conservative levels of drinking should be strongly discouraged for health reasons alone. To drink with any kind of frequency is to open oneself up to potential...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opiates? Hospitals Now Changing Their Approach

One of my colleagues is a veteran nurse who works in a hospital in Baton Rouge. He was born and raised in a sparsely populated, underserved area of Louisiana which is now being devastated by the opioid epidemic...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Can We Make REAL Progress on the Drug Crisis in the 2020s?

We have just passed into a new year and a new decade. There is some significance to that. We are saying our goodbyes to 2019 and the 2010s and saying hello to the year 2020 and the new decade of the 2020s. There is much that we need to work on in the new...