Drug Overdose Deaths Are Increasing Pretty Much Everywhere

~ Jason Schwartz

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These images speak for themselves. Here are a couple of important sentences:

Between 1999 and 2009, drug poisoning deaths grew by 394 percent in rural areas and 279 percent for large metropolitan areas, according to the CDC’s county-level look at the data.

According to the CDC, roughly 60 percent of all OD deaths in 2010 were caused by prescription drugs, with three-fourths of those cases involving painkillers.

The work of advocates like these is growing more important.

Blue indicates a lower overdose rate and red indicates a higher rate (13+ per 100,000)
Blue indicates a lower overdose death rate and red indicates a higher overdose death rate (13+ per 100,000)
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Published by Jason Schwartz

I have been an addiction professional and social worker since 1994. I started blogging in 2005 as the Clinical Director at Dawn Farm. I no longer work at Dawn Farm and am now the Director of Behavioral Medicine at a community hospital, and a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University’s School of Social Work. Views expressed here are my own. Keep in mind that the field, the contexts in which the field operates, and my views have changed over time.