Just look at the guy's eyes. He's wasted! Ditto for the drug addled left as a whole. Of course they make no sense. They're stoned!! Coke, meth, pain killers, and now? Heroin!
hhs.gov
Here's a quick summary, with more recent data, from one of the hardest hit states. Looking at the stats and graphs (double click on url at bottom) it's easy to see the rapid growth of this "modern plague of choice":
<Massachusetts is currently experiencing an epidemic of opioid-related overdose and death. These overdoses are driven by the underlying chronic disease of opioid addiction or opioid use disorders. People with opioid addiction are at high risk of overdose and death.
Opioid-related deaths in the state were more than four times higher in 2015 than in 2000. This recent rate of increase is several times faster than anything seen here before. In 2013–2014 alone, opioid-related deaths occurred in two-thirds of the cities and towns in Massachusetts.
The opioid-related death rate in Massachusetts has surpassed the national average, with an especially sharp rise in the last two years. In fact, 2014 marked the first year since 1999see footnote6 that the fatal overdose rate in the Bay State was more than double the national average. While opioid-related deaths have been on the rise across the country during that period, the situation in the Commonwealth has become especially worrying.
In one way or another — through deaths, nonfatal overdoses, or disruptions to jobs, marriages, families, and neighborhoods — every community in Massachusetts has been impacted by this growing crisis.
View the dataset powering this visualization
Sources: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Multiple Cause of Death 1999-2014 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released 2015. Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
mass.gov |
