the opiod nation; photo set

 Shasta

 Scott Creek

3-30-18    The first wave of opioid overdose deaths began in the 1990s and included prescription opioid deaths.   A second wave, which began in 2010, was characterized by heroin deaths.   A third wave started in 2013, with deaths involving highly potent synthetic opioids, particularly IMF and fentanyl analogs.  Synthetic opioid-involved deaths in 2016 accounted for 30.5% of all drug overdose deaths and 45.9% of all opioid-involved deaths, with a 100% increase in the rate of these deaths compared with 2015….

  The rates of prescription opioid–involved overdose deaths significantly increased in seven states and DC, with the highest rates in West Virginia (up 19.7%), Maryland (13.1), Maine (12.5), and Utah (12.5) (Table 1).  The highest cocaine-involved overdose death rates occurred in DC (13.5%), Rhode Island (10.7), and Ohio (10.1), with 15 states and DC experiencing a significant increase from 2015 (Table 3).  Significant increases in overdose death rates from heroin, prescription opioids, and cocaine occurred primarily in states in the eastern part of the country. …

  Counties in large central and fringe metro areas experienced the largest absolute increases in deaths involving prescription and synthetic opioids, heroin and cocaine.    https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6712a1.htm

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1.  
   
   In 2017 health care providers across the US wrote more than 191 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication—a rate of 58.7 prescriptions per 100 people.

3.  More than 11 million people misused prescription opioids in 2017.

4.  Every day more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids.

5.  In 2017 prescription opioids were involved in more than 35% of all opioid overdose deaths: nearly 17,000.

7.  The CDC estimates the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the US is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of health care, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.  3. More than 11 million people misused prescription opioids in 2017.  https://choosept.com/resources/detail/7-staggering-statistics-about-america-s-opioid-epi

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  In 2017 an estimated 1.7 million individuals in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers and 652,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder.

  Opioids are drugs formulated to replicate the pain-educing properties of opium.  They include both legal painkillers like morphine, oxycodone, or hydrocodone prescribed by doctors for acute or chronic pain, as well as illegal drugs like heroin or illicitly made fentanyl.  The word "opioid" is derived from the word “opium."

  In 2016 6.2 billion hydrocodone pills were distributed nationwide.  The second most prevalent opioid was oxycodone (Percocet).  In 2016 5 billion oxycodone tablets were distributed in the United States, according to IQVIA.  https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/18/health/opioid-crisis-fast-facts/index.html