Opioid Crisis Leaves 700,000 Americans Dead: “Epidemic Continues To Worsen And Evolve”

Via ZeroHedge

More than 700,000 Americans died from drug overdoses from 1999 to 2017, about 10% of them in 2017 alone, according to a new report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In total, there were a staggering 70,237 drug overdose deaths last year, which is more deaths than all US military fatal casualties of the Vietnam War. Opioids were involved in 67.8%, or 47,600 of those deaths. Of those opioid-related overdose deaths, 59.8% of them, or 28,466, were due to synthetic opioids.

The report, which was published online in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), also examined drug overdose deaths from 2013-17. During that time, “drug overdose death rates increased in 35 of 50 states and DC, and significant increases in death rates involving synthetic opioids occurred in 15 of 20 states,” the report said adding that the rapid increase was driven by fentanyl.

Of the 35 districts reporting data, 23 states and DC noticed increased rates of death directly linked to synthetic opioids. Fentanyl overdose deaths surged 150% from 2016 to 2017.

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/drug%20crisis%20.png?itok=N8lEbLT-

In prior reports, synthetic opioid-related deaths primarily occurred east of the Mississippi River. The latest CDC data now shows 8 states west of the Mississippi had significant increases in such deaths: Arizona, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.

The CDC said overdoses were seen in both men and women, as well as non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics, blacks, had the largest relative change, which was 25.2%. The most significant increase in deaths occurred among 25 to 44-year-old men, a sobering reality that demonstrates America’s prime working age men are deteriorating.

“Through 2017, the drug overdose epidemic continues to worsen and evolve, and the involvement of many types of drugs (e.g., opioids, cocaine, and methamphetamine) underscores the urgency to obtain more timely and local data to inform public health and public safety action,” the report said.

In a separate, but relevant report, Altarum, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based health care research and consulting firm said the opioid epidemic’s economic toll is disastrous. The report said, “the societal benefit of eliminating opioid overdoses, death and use disorders reached $115 billion in 2017, up from $95.3 billion for 2016.”

The total exceeds $1 trillion when the costs from 2001 to 2017 are compiled. Another $500 billion is expected to be added to this sum by 2020. Lost earnings and waning productivity account for much of these costs and also result in declining tax dollars collected. 

Altarum estimated direct health care costs totaled $12.2 billion in 2016. Indirect health care costs totaled an estimated $9.2 billion.

Altarum also lists many “nonmonetized impacts” including decreased quality of life, emotional burdens and “disparate community impacts,” such as decreased property values and loss of perceived community well-being.

Despite President Trump pledging to put an “extremely big dent” in the drug addiction crisis in America, the problem continues to escalation at an exponential pace with little signs of slowing. And making matters worse, the crisis will likely deteriorate during the next recession, expected to materialize some time in late 2019, and just in time for the 2020 election.

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overthecliff
overthecliff

Oh look! We have a drug problem! Don’t pay attention to the government tightening the social score noose around our necks. Erosion of 1st and 2nd Amendments This is their latest distraction from our real problems with our home grown communists.
Most of the deaths are accidents caused by using unknown quality street drugs and not suicide (in the traditional sense).
The loss of a loved ones life is a personal tragedy because we watch helplessly while they drink or drug themselves to death. Sad as it is, they reap what they sow. The victim also cause pain and suffering and expense to others. Thinning the herd gets rid of the weak to the benefit of the herd. That is harsh but it is what it is.

unit472

Tucker Carlson had a guest on recently to discuss this. He mentioned a study on rats where if a rat was put in a cage and allowed to drink water from a bottle laced with cocaine or heroin or just water the animal chose the narcotic laced water. No surprise there but another researcher decided to find out if the conditions of the rats confinement mattered and they did. If the rat was placed in a nice environment with other rats and things to do they didn’t prefer the narcotics laced water.

Obviously we cannot micro manage people’s lives to eliminate boredom so even if quality of life is the solution it is beyond the ability of society to fix that for everyone and I suspect if you put the rat in a cage with other drug addicted rats it would go back to the narcotics laced bottle just as drug addicted people tend to hang out together and make drug use their main objective in life. Still the toll is enormous so, in order to reduce overdose death the only solution I can see is to let addict buy pharmaceutical drugs so the content and dosage is known. We didn’t have many overdose deaths around here when the ‘pill mills’ were open in Florida. Addicts could get their oxycodone pills from a ‘doctor’ and make enough selling some to pay for their addiction though I admit this did create new addicts

TampaRed
TampaRed

unit,
i saw the same tucker carlson piece & it made sense–
as far as there being less deaths b4 pill mills were outlawed,there were still plenty of od s then–

Mustang
Mustang

Watch the YouTube music video “Plastic Bottle” by Gawga Boyz. Your welcome. Be blessed, be prepared, be MGTOW!!!

no one
no one

Powerful. I would share it with family, but due to recent death and imprisonment of 30ish nephews/cousin, it is bound to cause hurt feelings. Too close to home for too many of us.

Donkey Balls
Donkey Balls

Wow, I can’t believe no upvotes. Pretty powerful video.

no one
no one

A subject too close to home for many, I suspect.

None Ya Biz
None Ya Biz

no i don’t listen to crap.

Stucky

“President Trump pledging to put an “extremely big dent” in the drug addiction crisis in America,…”

Riiiiiight. A ‘big dent’ sounds just gr-r-r-r-reat!! Hey, let’s declare a war on drugs! Or, maybe Trump can come up with a red “Just Say No” hat!

Government cannot solve this problem. At least not directly by passing one endless bullshit ineffective law after another. Killing yourself slowly via harmful drugs ultimately is a question of moral choices …. and an immoral government is in no position to legislate such matters.

Maybe if 95% of the 535 immoral fuckers decided to kill themselves, then maybe that would give drug taking Americans a reason for hope again ….. because. as my dad so often said, ‘without hope we have nothing’.

KaD
KaD

Interesting timing considering the nearby articles are about employees getting screwed.

no one
no one

Are our own soldiers in Afghanistan guarding poppies to facilitate the addiction and premature deaths of our obviously bored adult population, who find themselves in a world without jobs or purpose, particularly the adult men, which have been relegated to the role of baby-daddy rather than father and head of household. It is no wonder the following statistic caught my eye.

“The most significant increase in deaths occurred among 25 to 44-year-old men, a sobering reality that demonstrates America’s prime working age men are deteriorating.”

My 32-year-old cousin died of opiate overdose, after more than a decade of use and abuse. The prescribing doctor was his father’s cousin (no relation to me). His mother found him deceased and the ensuing family drama destroyed a lot of people’s relationships, as such things often do.

For example, my nephew of the same age and same school system is in prison, having committed enough semi-violent crimes while on parole he got his parole suspended. He has returned to prison to serve another 7 years for child molestation and drug trafficking (15 total, beginning at 21.) to minors. He will be released at 40, all tatted up and worthless to society. It is a FUCKING tragedy what happened to the 90s generation of teens.

I really blame the mass communication media gatekeepers, who control the images we are shown onscreen and on television. And, increasingly, on channels of the internet we once believed to be promoting free speech and expression, but which we now realize are not. So, the Mass Media which gave up its moral compass and headed for Hollywood in the 1970s to turn celebrities into role models for our children, well, they glorified drug use by mocking the arrests of numerous rock stars and movie stars for drugs. I remember reading that the Hollywood starlets used Vicodin as energy pills in a Rag Mag in a dentist office. I realized pain pills must be a lot more easily gotten in the non-military world than in mine, because I’d had an awful time in oral surgery at an Air Force dental clinic and was given two (2) Tylenol 3s and some aspirin, told to take the Tylenol only if it was really bad pain. Since we had almost twenty years (from 1999 until present) to have that attitude change to the point “doctor shopping” became a real thing we all understand now, one can only wonder where we will be in just another decade or so.

There are many things contributing to the ease with which our youngsters accept drug use by peers and themselves. My peers watched science and health films which told us about the dangers of drugs not prescribed by a doctor. So, we learned how to make sure a doctor was prescribing the drugs we wanted, as seen on TV. So, one of the reasons drug use is so widespread has got to be all the damn television advertising and the glorification of drug use in television and in movies.

John Travolta is definitely a prime suspect: Pulp Fiction is best evidence. (sarcasm intended… I really do not blame ONLY John Travolta.)

And, by extension, what was handed to the 2000s (true millennials, like my son), was even worse. I blame the movie Pulp Fiction for the downward spiral. I suggest John Travolta might be to blame, leading us all the way back to the lack of moral character suggested in Welcome Back, Kotter. Perhaps, it was that Horshack character, too.

Uncola

I once had a business associate who was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina. She moved and started a new life. But, before doing so, she called me a month after the headlines subsided. She said (something like):

It’s worse down here than anyone up north can understand. Out of sight, out of mind. Just because it’s not making news anymore, everyone thinks it’s OK. It’s not. It won’t be the same. Ever.

For many folks, I think addiction is like that as well. So much carnage unseen.

In the event there are readers going through similar devastation, I am reposting this here as a reminder: No one is an island; it’s all sea.

Choose Love: Don’t Ever Let Fear Turn You Against Your Playful Heart

Craven Warrior
Craven Warrior

The book “Hillbilly Elegy” by JD Vance really does a good job explaining what has happened regarding the opioid crisis. Unfortunately most of it is culture and what it will take to change things are overwhelming for a country that has lost its way.

Craven Warrior
Craven Warrior

Don’t expect the government to do anything about it. They can’t even deliver the mail.

no one
no one

It looks interesting. I will be ordering it soon. From the Walmart link here, I hope.

Yep… here’s the link to send a few dimes toward Admin here at TBP.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hillbilly-Elegy-A-Memoir-of-a-Family-and-Culture-in-Crisis/55203231

Coalclinker
Coalclinker

I live in one of the counties illustrated in the “West Virginia 49.5” Circle Subset. The societal devastation is all true. Everyone who lives there knows at least one person who died from a drug overdose. Had there been no government paid service Medicaid clinics, none of this would have happened. If you want a take on what caused it, I could talk for hours about it. People from other parts of the country make fun of it, and always seem to have a solution but never talk to people who live in the midst of it. The same people who think the Government can solve this problem cannot accept the notion that the Government caused it to begin with. I personally believe that higher-ups behind The Curtain set up the situation that allowed this to happen, knowing damn well what they created. People in this area tend to be very patriotic and will never accept Globalist Rules, and would be a future source of endless problems and probable violence. Now to be positive and rather cold, the good thing is that the weak here will soon be dead and gone. The strong-willed good people will remain. They can’t kill all of us.

robert h siddell jr
robert h siddell jr

Judging by the Red vs Blue voting, one major Party is encouraging political insanity, and half the population is already in love with cultural & individual destruction including illegal drugs. That Party is damned sure to worsen the problems not improve America.

Iwasntbornwithenufmiddlefingers
Iwasntbornwithenufmiddlefingers

I think its barely a start to the dope fiends we need to be rid of

Coalclinker
Coalclinker

I absolutely agree with you. However, there are lots of other trouble makers we need to be rid of, and the dope fiends are just the appetizer. The funny thing is the process where people don’t think there are any troubles and suddenly find out that they are considered a problem.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Singapore doesn’t have a problem. Wonder why? Could have something to do with cane lashing and the death penalty.

But that would offend the Ron Paul Zealots .

Its all about the individual until your society is mortally harmed.

AC
Coalclinker
Coalclinker

I’ll include another link concerning Williamson, WV, a town of 2900 in Mingo County. Over the last 10 years, 20,800,000 opiate pills were “distributed” by 2 pharmacies that are 4 blocks apart. You’re tootin’ right! This could never be unintentional, and I bet most of the billing made by those pharmacies was paid by tax originated dollars.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/health/drug-firms-shipped-m-pain-pills-to-wv-town-with/article_ef04190c-1763-5a0c-a77a-7da0ff06455b.html

no one
no one

Interesting story, but one comment made me think about how many hospitals and clinics in the area might use those pharmacies. Or… were they part of an internet sales scheme in the 2000s? I remember hearing about people ordering narcotics online when I was working on the military base… seriously.

no one
no one

Thanks for the links.

wdg
wdg

What percentage of overdose deaths and additions is from opioids prescribed by money-grubbing and professionally unethical doctors.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Death by drug overdose = one less thief. I really do not care.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Some ignorant fucks kbviously do not understand what addicts do to pay for their drugs. What they do is steal. Or whore – the women often whore until they are too ugly, which happens fast, to entice customers.

They steal from everyone they can – family, especially, because family generally does not turn them in. They steal vast amounts. Each and every one of them. And there is almost zero chance of helping them.

And so, I could not give a fuck if they all drop dead, and the sooner the better. They are blights on society.

Each death is a tragedy to a family, but a godsend to society.

Anonymous
Anonymous

You’re quite the humanitarian.

Llpoh
Llpoh

I do not subscribe to the bleeding heart narrative. Drug addicts make their own choices. Wghen they steal,and they do, they can rot in hell far as I am concerned. Society shoul not tolerate this shit.

Overthecliff
Overthecliff

Truth hurts but it is still the truth, Llpoh.

Llpoh
Llpoh

Over – there is no answer to this stuff. They cannot be helped, and they drag everyone – and I mean everyone – close to them down into the sewer with them. It is very rare for an addict to shake their addiction. If it were my family, of course I would help. But it would almost certainly be futile.

I know families with addicts. The addicts have all ended up dead, no exceptions, but not before destroying their families and their wealth.

Best if they overdose quickly, because the long, drawn-out way causes a lot more suffering.

Tree Mike
Tree Mike

Llpoh You need to check out AC’s post above. With more info, your response would have been a bit different. Love your writing, respect your opinion. I’m 68, I’ve had several ballistic events in my life resulting in repaired, replaced knees, repaired torn, separated tendons, 6 fractured vertebra(2 separate incidents) and extreme lacerations. Tree service, dirt bikes, 3 wheelers, cars, blue collar work, accidents, warfare, cop work, paramedic work, nurses, etc ad infinitum result in millions of on and off the job injuries needing heavy duty pain relief. Tree Mike

turlock
turlock

Freedom, liberty, free will, discipline, self responsibility……. so many issues involved.I have seen too many families destroyed by a son or daughter deciding to stick a needle full of street drugs into their arm. If they just destroyed themselves it would by a sad event at the cemetery. But, these fools drag the whole family through a slow motion horror show with far reaching consequences. Lipoh is right. Individual choices should not poison the extended family.

Anonymous
Anonymous

I wonder if these deaths include the folks who have been taken off of opioids by their doctor, but the pain they have is unbearable, so they commit suicide?

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

Never have I heard of so many people mistreated by fate so they could not understand sticking a needle in their veins and pumping some shit into their blood stream that they bought on the street was an ok thing to do . Sounds pretty fucking stupid to me and their are a shit load of stupid people wandering around taking up space these days .
Yes I have compassion for the number of people in severe pain due to some medical issue ending up addicted to strong drugs with the unintended consequences .
As for the junkies that do it as a sport or lark and end up overdosed generally after stealing from their own mother for a fix and years of family intervention only to shit in the families faces screw them . They have burned every bridge for help in most cases and to waste time and effort to save them is a waste of time money and effort !

Anonymous
Anonymous

Boat – a man after my own heart. There are worthy out there to help. Helping those that self-inflict harm is societal suicide. Truly. Once a society starts doing that, it is doomed, as personal responsibility is then quickly replaced by a welfare- entitled population. That never ends well.

TampaRed
TampaRed

the problem goes the other direction also–
my 86 yo dad has been forced stone cold off oxy by the va doctors–they’re afraid to prescribe it for fear of what happens if patients od–they’re making my dad go to acupuncture 1x/week–
what effing difference does it make if he finally od s if you can give a patient what he wants so he’s pain free?

Boat Guy
Boat Guy

Watched my mom get hit with morphine with terminal cancer with no possibility of any cure . If the doctors and nurses hitting her with morphine like we would drink beer on a hot August night God Bless Them . Did the drugs or cancer eventually end her suffering does it really matter . Those who find fault with this perhaps you should have been in the room as mom gasped for breath and whinced in agony then you make the call !

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