Drug overdoses led to more deaths in the U.S. in 2017 than any year on record and were the leading cause of death in the country, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report issued Friday.
More than 72,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2017, according to the NIH — about 200 per day. That number is more than four times the number who died in 1999 from drug abuse: 16,849.
The figures are up about 15 percent from 63,632 drug-related deaths in 2016.
Since 2011, more people have died from drug overdoses than by gun violence, car accidents, suicide, or homicide, the DEA report stated.
In 2017, 40,100 people died in vehicle incidents; 15,549 were fatally shot, not including suicide; 17,284 were homicide victims, though an unspecified portion of this number includes gunshot victims; and nearly 45,000 committed suicide.
The DEA attributed last year’s uptick in deaths to a spike in opioid-related fatalities. The agency said 49,060 people died as a result of abusing opioids, up from 42,249 in 2016.
[Also read: CDC director calls for destigmatizing addiction to confront opioid crisis]
Of those opioid deaths, synthetic opioids were responsible for nearly 20,000. More people died from them than heroin. The DEA report said synthetic fentanyl and comparable types of drugs are cheaper than heroin, making them more attractive to buyers.
The DEA also found heroin-related drug overdoses had doubled from 2013 to 2016 because manufacturers illegally producing synthetic fentanyl have laced the heroin with opioids.
President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a “national emergency” in October 2017. Last month, he signed a comprehensive bill that included $8.5 billion in funding for related projects to reduce addiction and deaths.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions noted one positive trend in the study.
“Preliminary data from the CDC shows that drug overdose deaths actually began to decline in late 2017 and opioid prescriptions fell significantly,” Sessions said in a statement.
CIA profits from heroin are down due to medical competition? Stifle legal RXs and drive the populace to CIA supply lines.
Public Intelligence has published a series of photographs showing American – and U.S.-trained Afghan – troops patrolling poppy fields in Afghanistan. Public Intelligence informs us that all of the photos are in the public domain, and not subject to copyright, and they assured me that I have every right to reproduce them.
https://washingtonsblog.com/2012/10/14066.html
Eventually this problem is its own cure.
Affirmative Action kills around 250,000 Americans per year by way of ‘medical mistakes.’
Better to die at the unwashed hands of a low-IQ incompetent than risk being called a racist. Totally worth it, right?
Quite right, AC.
Iatrogenic death is right behind Cancer and Heart Disease
as the 3rd biggest cause of death.
MORE GODDAMED MISDIRECTION BY THE PSYOP MEDIA
The article is WORTHLESS with the ADR numbers. ADRs = Adverse Drug Reactions aka death by pharmaceuticals, which is usually over 100,000 per year!
What? No wailing and crying about the mounting numbers of drug related deaths? And no calls for Illegal Drug Control like there is for Gun Control? Of course not! The profiteering Elites make NO money off of gun sales, but they sure as hell make a lot of money off of the sale of illegal drugs!!
The “War on Drugs” is just as big of a farce as all of the other “wars” we are in and have been in for the last 50 years. They’re not about to kill the geese that lay the golden eggs and evidently they go out of their way to protect the industry with our own military. Hell of a deal isn’t it?
It may sound cold I doubt civilization is going to miss the contributions these overdoses would have made.