As a new resident of Maine, 3 years, I see the map and hopelessness and despair are a major indicator. The farther North the worse the problem while our blowhard Governor prefers withhold Narcan believing it is just delaying the next overdose.
A lot of the addicts of the 70s ended up in methadone programs. Most of those people never stopped using street drugs. They continued to "dip and dab" into cocaine and pills, perhaps heroin from time to time. The methadone facilities looked the other way. Now that fentanyl, which is extremely powerful, has entered the mix, some of those addicts who thought they had a high tolerance because of their prescribed methadone use, thought they could get away with using fentanyl like other opioids. Oops.
Can you analyze opioid deaths and poverty? Is there a strong correlation? Or are there other factors that are making significant contributions to the high death counts in some areas. I'm thinking, though poverty is a major contributor, there are other factors.
Note that these stats are for all drugs, not opiates only, and are not broken down to indicate whether multiple substances were involved.
It seems that the largest contributors to the death rates are the presence of fentanyl in the local supply and the use of other substances along with opiates. Death from heroin alone, or other opiates alone, is relatively rare (except Fentanyl)—usually, deaths are caused by combining opiates with other depressants such as benzodiazepines or alcohol.
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Just maybe but you know sometimes a cold beer and a cig or "weed"should just stay that not a court case. And mixing up the rich and the poor isn't always a nice idea. Poor people have been constantly scrutinized over everything and then nothing is provided or allowed, those drugs in the study are whats being brought into the neighborhood, how is it getting there? no poor person is bringing it in. Once we stop making the stereotype face and see that the issue is the people we least suspect then we might be onto something,,,What do you think?? and yes poverty but Loss of Hope is the bigger issue.
It's scary to see that there is a huge disparity between one county and the one nearby.
These are deaths caused by poverty, hopelessness, and declining economic fortunes. Notice how they affect all races, which see the death tolls rise.
The troubling thing about this is that they are trending towards exponential growth. The worst may be yet to come.
The US needs to see a national jobs program, a drug counseling program with no stigma attached, and a universal healthcare system.
Notice how some of the areas that are growing, like the District of Columbia have economies that seem strong. Same with Massachusetts (at least around Boston, although there is a lot of poverty in West Mass). That tells me that inequality must be a big part of the problem and this will need a big redistribution of wealth from the 1% to the bottom 90%.
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If researchers are confused about the cocaine involved, ask any old dope fiend: they're doing speedballs.
Labeling someone a "dope fiend" contributes mightily to the problem. Your comment is dripping with judgement, a sense of superiority, disdain and dehumanization of others. There are derogatory terms for most everybody (women, gay people, black people, Jewish people, the list is unending) that are hurdled at and about those groups by people would consider themselves "in the know" and therefore immune to silly politically correct notions ... after they are really just "pragmatic straight-shooters who call it like they see it." In reality they are people who crudely tar people with the same brush based on this or that trait that in fact exists to some small degree in all groups of people. They convince themselves they aren't prejudiced -- they just have a uniquely clear view of reality. These derogatory terms serve only to perpetuate stigmatizing stereotypes generation after generation. Your opinion that they are doing speedballs may be true, untrue or partially true. Other equally possible scenarios are laid out in the article even if you are convinced you know the true answer. With the disdain you show it's clear you aren't someone to whom people will be confiding so your conviction about your superior knowledge on the subject is a little baffling to me.
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Yes, we'll insert the racial angle to every story. This is not about racism.
Most of the street opioids come from China, the heroin from Mexico. Trade restrictions and the wall are becoming more attractive. As are strong restrictions on the prescriptions of opioids by doctors, and the banning of advertisements by pharmaceutical manufacturers.
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There is NO OPIOID epidemic! There is, however, a Suicide Epidemic. Opioids are actually only one instrument of accomplishing the end result, sad as it may be. Do we blame suicide by gunshot on the gun? Or the victim? Suicide by poison on the poison or on the user? Why is it that suicide by overdosing on opioids is an epidemic, but suicide is not? I think we need to take a new way of looking at "epidemics".........
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Dr. Kraynak was prescribing in Pennsylvania. Kraynak was the top prescriber in the state for opioids, writing ones for about 2.7 million doses of oxycodone, hydrocodone, oxycontin and fentanyl within 19 months. Those prescriptions were written for about 2,838 patients. Prison for Dr. Kraynak?
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"Opioid Deaths Are Spreading Rapidly into Black America"
Now that it is no longer just a "largely white rural problem" will Americans pay more attention or less to this epidemic?
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Less, a lot less. More jail talk though. Think War on Drugs but completely bypassing any jail time for the white rural pop. and a lot more for Black urban pop. It's just how we do it.
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True. White folks get treatment (not that our current treatment system works) while black and brown folks get jail time, and the current administration is going to see to it that this continues.
The separation of drug users by race, as this article does, has a false and insidious effect. It promotes false generalizations about the different lifestyles of racial minorities and, in the wrong hands, reinforces racial stereotypes with no basis. In recent history, the rate of illicit use of drugs among blacks has been almost the same as among whites. Adjusted for economic status, the use of illegal drugs among blacks is probably lower than that of whites. But that is certainly not what the average person believes, based on what appears in the media.
Every three years the federal government conducts surveys on this point and confirms these results. See Figure 2.12.
https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUHresultsPDFWHTML2013...
The publicity and politicization of the recent wave of opioid deaths among whites comes with unspoken subtext--now a previously black problem is occurring in white communities. But that is a false narrative; drug usage rates have largely been the same among blacks, whites and hispanics (and much lower among Asians). Again, adjusted for economic status, whites abuse illegal drugs at a greater rate than blacks and hispanics. Newspapers like the NYT need to do something to correct the record.
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I agree. It reenforces a false reading about nonwhite drug use (particularly Black and Latino). It also makes it easier to ignore these problems because it is affecting "those people" and they are hopelessly inferior so not worthy of addressing the problem. It's how we have the social issues we have today. Paint it as a "Black" problem and it can be ignored even though it is an issue that crosses multiple groups and hit the poor/working class (whatever their ethnicity/race) the hardest. The public policy take started with people like Lee Atwater and the Nixon administration and continues to this day.
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West Virginia, the highest mortality, and the highest number of Republicans.
Come on, Donald. Do something for the allegiance. You said you would!
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The article is based on made-up phony fake data
I KNOW it is phony fake data because it claims that 12 people /100,000 in my county died from opioids in 2016.
This is a small county - land of expensive homes and beaches. Less than 22,000. It is such a small place that everyone knows everything and news spreads faster than the wind. There is so little going on that the local media publish everything and 1 opioid death - for this place- - is huge news.
By these ridiculous estimates, that would mean 2.52 people died from opioids in this county in 2016
In 2015 there was ONE opioid death
In 2016 there were ZERO opioid deaths - zero as in NONE and this drivel falsely claims there were 2.52
In 2017 there was ONE opioid death
So when the fake "data" of this article would falsely claim that over the past 3 years there were 7 -8 opioid deaths in my county, in fact there were ONLY TWO in 3 years ---- 2 not 7-8.
Phony made-up nonsense and this article can NOT be believed.
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They are likely using CDC data versus gossip and what was printed in a local news website serving a tiny community?
It's possible that a suicide was written off as a suicide...but it was an OD, as well.
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Which county? These stats are from NCHS and CDCP, not the NYT. I think you might be (might be I don't know, I don't live there) suffering from some sort of anecdotal bias.
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That CDC is now keeping numbers of deaths-by-addiction among Black Americans - is overwhelmingly- Underwhelming.
Where was the CDC in the 1950's, 60's,70,'s.80's, 90's...during the Drug Scourge the wiped out generations of black men; bodies riddled with needle marks: Heroin, Angel- Dust, Crack, Crank, Meth; never once seen as a "health crisis". No treatment centers covered by health insurance or Medicaid: The treatment of choice; billion dollar jail and prison cells, ruined lives with nary hope of rehabilitation.
What are "we" supposed to make of this 6 decade late reportage?
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Funny, I was thinking the same thing. Of course, we know the answer, now that it is more obvious that white people are suffering from this, treatment is the solution vs. jail.
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The only people to blame in this opioid crisis are the people that are stupid enough to take the drugs. If the effects of the drugs are so enticing that they are impossible to resist we should all be addicts.
Have you ever been in intractable physical pain? Please experience spinal stenosis or severe arthritis of the spine or hips before bashing people for using the only relief available.
This seems like a simplistic view of the phenomena. Part of what kicked this whole thing off, from my understanding, is over-prescription of perfectly legal opioids dealing with pain by poor/working class people because of the greater likelihood of injury from physical labor. Also, information as been made clear that some of these drugs are so addictive/deadly that police have been instructed to wear gloves or the like so they don't have direct contact with them.
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Have you ever experienced severe, intractable pain? Please go through spinal stenosis or arthritis in the hip joints before bashing people in agony who take the only relief they can get. Especially since the Obama Administration told seniors to forego surgery and "just take a pill" for pain.
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After watching two excellent reports on the opioid crises on 60 Minutes the problem became very clear. The problem is the companies that distribute these products. Congress took away the power of the DEA to investigate and hold these companies accountable for sending millions of pills into towns with tiny populations. Congress as the power to stop this any minute of any day but chooses not to. Why, Perhaps because of the huge sums of cash that that big pharma pumps into congressional campaigns. So if one of your loved ones succumbs to an opioid overdose you can both thank and blame congress.
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Understating this data by using per 100,000 in population is likely a poor way to normalize the seriousness. When using a small county in W.Va. as having 40 deaths/100,000 when the county only has 3,000 people living there leaves misunderstandings. The other troubling aspect of this story is there seems little experience gained from one episode of using a drug to the next drug event. Is it you just decide to take too much one day and boom, you're dead. Or, is it a lack of street drug strength from one purchase to the next that ultimately delivers the death dosage? The stories get more and more confusing as the typical storyline is moving from pain pill to street drugs and lots of experience up until a fateful day and death. The raw numbers per county might be helpful as I do no know a single person killed by overdose.
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Well, then consider yourself lucky/privileged/grateful... I've lost both friends and students. RIP Tim, Wes, and Steve.
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A problem with street heroin has always been that since it is unregulated and unstandardized it is impossible to know the strength determined by pure heroin versus adulterants. So users may purchase what they assume will be the typical strength they are able to buy and, ironically, if they are given a more honest deal i.e. greater percentage of what they are paying for versus adulterant they are more likely to accidentally overdose. Just as alcohol prohibition caused the large scale conversion of American beer and wine drinkers into hard liquor drinkers because more potency could be smuggled in smaller volume containers now fentanyl, a very powerful synthetic opioid is being used to boost the potency of heroin cheaply and often without the knowledge of the buyers. Many people were, years ago, using prescription opioids which had the benefit of being in regulated, clearly marked dosages. Opioids, can nonetheless, be dangerous and deaths from opioids had started to climb. In response the government clamped down on availability of prescription opioids naively assuming people who were dependent could and would just stop taking them. The actual result was that people switched to much more readily available and cheaper heroin and the overdose deaths then soared higher. Enter the recent widespread addition of the more potent and lethal fentanyl and overdoes deaths have skyrocketed ever higher. So the government's standard prohibitionist approach has, as usual, made things far worse.
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Interesting to see Washington, Colorado, California, Oregon and Alaska all low on the list of opioid death rates - and also not increasing. One has to wonder if legalizing marijuana nationwide might save millions of lives. Heck, the government should give it away. Any time an addict reaches for a joint instead of going out to score fentanyl, that is an addict who is going to live another day and maybe someday get his act together.
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But note that Massachusetts has a fairly high rate.
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Especially Cape Cod. It has the highest rates of substance abuse of any where in the state.
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Opioid addicts and potsmokers aren't the same people, so giving people marijuana as a preventative won't work. That's kind of humorous actually. Opioid addicts are highly likely to have clinical depression, whereas potsmokers are more likely to have borderline personality disorder. If we are going to give out alternatives let's try Zoloft.
The patterns of opioid deaths are very strange. Not unexpectedly, the Native American reservations are clearly -- social conditions are bad and addictions are rampant.
There are odd places, though, Northern California, nearly all of Oklahoma, what looks like Salt Lake City and NW Utah, and then that terrifying swath from Tennessee northeast up to Maine (but seeming missing most of NY State).
Let's be specific though -- this is NOT prescription drug abuse, it is NOTdoctor's treating chronic pain for people who need it. Rather:
"they’re dying because the heroin supply has never been so dangerous — increasingly it’s got fentanyl in it or it’s just fentanyl sold as heroin.”
Fentanyl can be made on a kitchen table "You don't have to be a skilled chemist — it can be taught how to make it,".
Meth labs have been replaced by "fen" labs -- and its killing the desperate and the depressed and the addicted.
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Exactly why drugs should be legal. Buyers know what they're getting, drug dealers go out of business, inner city crime goes way down, deaths are decreased, etc. It's prohibition that is killing these users.
1
Completely true yet reliably our country choosing a disparage harm reduction methods that keep people alive long enough to successfully best their demons as "enabling" or "soft-on-(victimless)-crime". Our Puritan roots shine through as we always choose to punish the habits of people we disapprove of and never, ever take stock of the ways we make problems exponentially larger.
My husband broke and shattered his leg in preparing for hurricane Irma, the hospital gave him enough pain pills for two days despite the fact that Irma was scheduled to arrive in two days and despite the fact that they saw the x-rays, knew he had shattered his leg into multiple pieces and knew he was scheduled for surgery the next week. Then when I went to get the prescription filled I had to hit three pharmacies before they would give me the pills (percocet). These opioids are not coming from doctors or pharmacies as our experience was that its impossible to get sufficient pain pills even when you have a well documented shattered leg.
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This is a valid concern that doesn’t get enough attention. While no one wants to feed addiction, doctors have an obligation to care for their patients, which includes mitigating pain. While it may be difficult to asses in non-specific cases (my back hurts absent any clinical evidence) there should be no question of the need for more than two days of pain meds for someone in your husband’s condition. As always when we try to make one size fits all rules it goes awry.
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I see a map of despair, with human self destruction aided but not caused by availability of especially dangerous drugs, which may have been introduced to many users first as justified by treatment for pain.
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An administration, led by an ignorant, simpleton science denier, that drives out scientists and medical professionals, will not be helpful AT ALL. The root cause of this crisis is, of course, MONEY. Not the money that isn't in the economy, depriving those in the lowest economic groups from seeing a way to financial improvement in their lives, but, rather, the Big Pharma lobbyists' bribery money, the money that has made the government (especially the Justice Department) look the other way, when it comes to "opioids". This situation has been brought about by the pill manufacturers' free ride, as they continue to pump millions of pills into our society. Our legislators have been complicit; softening the very laws we need to have in place to punish drug manufacturers. Our pathetic AG, Sessions, seems to live in the 1937 world of Harry Anslinger, refusing to grasp the reality of 2017's Big Pharma takeover. And, of course, without sober and objective scientific insight and oversight, by those NOT on the drug companies' payrolls, we won't make headway on this issue.
I'm also a bit annoyed by the tone of this story, attempting to inject a racial element into the subject (along with some spurious presumptions). There are many ways we can deal with this epidemic, but by ignoring the root causes, trying to shift focus and deflect attention from the sources of this problem, we won't be making any headway.
Big Pharma MUST be brought to account.
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As much as I dislike "Big Pharma", their role must not be over-emphasized. Unfortunately, and sadly, the suicide-inclined who choose opioids are volunteers.....they are not forced to commit suicide. They could accomplish the same result with guns, autos, poisons, ropes, and an endless list of other devices and methods. Why is the instrument of death, chosen by the user, blamed for the death? We have on our hands a Suicide Epidemic, not an Opioid Epidemic..........
2
All of the fentanyl in the world comes from China. When countries like Afghanistan hemorrhage violence and heroin, we go on bombing and fire lighting campaigns, not to mention incentive crop programs. When countries like Colombia hemorrhage violence and cocaine, we go on similar eradications, with the full force of multiple governments.
But when China year after year ships dozens of metric tons of amphetamine precursors to Mexico and Myanmar, when China ships all the fentanyl in the world to staging countries -- Mexico to stage to the U.S., Myanmar to stage to South and Southeast Asia, we don't even mention it, and blame ourselves. We report on the violence in Myanmar and never talk about the drug trades and SEZ that are exacerbators there. The very same reporter who was all over Aung San Suu Kyi for the Rohingya is now reporting on how dangerous Mexico is for journalists, but nary a word about the 800 lb gorilla which is selling illicit drugs to the world that just happen to be headed for its economic competitors.
This is the Opium Wars in reverse. There is a reason there's so much methamphetamine and fentanyl in the world, and where is our President? Signing corrupt tax deals, putting his head in Putins lap, and partying with Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. Corruption comes in many forms, but most of them are well connected to a family named Trump.
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I too would like to know more about the Fentanyl trail. This is what is taking these addicts down in larger numbers. Carfentanil is also showing up here in MA. It is an elephant tranquilizer. 100Xs more dangerous than Fentanyl.
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94 percent of heroin comes through Mexico - source William R. Brownfield asst. secretary of BINLEA. We need a wall. We need NAFTA to be re-written so trucks full of deadly drugs cant just pour over the border. Police our borders. Our kids are dying.
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"The Opioid Crisis Is Getting Worse — Particularly for Black Americans"
Does this mean it's no longer a "problem", and we can...again, stop worrying about it?
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It probably means it will become a criminal offense for Black Americans and not a crisis deserving of heartfelt support and understanding, as it is for others.
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To the contrary. Now that it's not just about poor whites from flyover states, the supposed backbone of Trump's support, the educated classes can now get behind worrying about it. Bigly.
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Now that drug addiction will be seen once again as a black problem, people will lose interest. In the past when it was seen as a black problem, addicts were seen as low-lifes who were criminals. When it was more recently seen as a white problem the addicts suddenly became victims of their "disease" fueled by the evil drug companies. The original attitude is the correct one. Drug addicts are criminals who became addicted to drugs by their own hand. Most never had a valid prescription for a medical issue. They simply decided to take drugs and got them either by fraudulent prescriptions or on the street.
Rush Limbaugh was the perfect example of the change in attitude. He railed against addicts until he was caught doctor shopping for prescriptions because of his "terrible" pain. Unfortunately, he was not treated like the low-life addict that he was because he was wealthy and white. I hope this new wave of addicts will help authorities to remember that drug addiction is a choice for most people, even if they are white.
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Actually that is just not true. Democrats wanted it to be treated as a medical condition and they got what they wanted. The facts are, all people quit doing heroin after the 70's . Both black and white (even though the latino population loved heroin)after they saw the affects. By the way the largest heroin dealer ever was a black man that brought the drugs into this nation on his own!! (not debatable) In the late 80's I found that my black friend loved and sold heroin. I saw him and his father shoot dope at the same time. It was actually the same night I at his home as he sold heroin to a white couple dressed in a Tux and ball gown. They shot the drug in front of me and then left for the inaugural ball for the newly elected democratic governor.it was the last time I called him friend and the last time I saw him. Drugs kill all. Go to San Fran and look at the Asians dying. Go to Detroit or Baltimore and watch the blacks dying. Or better yet just open your eyes. You will see that drugs are death and death loves all ethnicities!!!
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"Now that drug addiction will be seen once again as a black problem, people will lose interest." - S.L.
This is a race-baiting post. Drug addiction is not a recent phenomenon. The folks who maintain that it became a 'problem' only when whites started over-dosing are displaying their ignorance. The 1950's were also a time of inexpensive hard drugs and frequent addiction by both blacks and whites.
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@James. It was never just a black problem but was perceived as one because of the way it was covered in the media. It was always the black crack addicts but never the whites who snorted cocaine. Then psychiatrists came up with the disease model which of course excuses the large number of whites who are addicts. We are supposed to feel sorry for them. Once it is perceived as a black problem again, I predict the disease model will fall out of favor.
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I'd like to see more information related to Fentanyl and Carfentanil.
Seems as if this is what is killing more people.
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Remember this is self inflicted.
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We're killing ourselves, ourselves, right here at home.
You'd think this is about drug addicts, but its not.
You'd think it's about race, but race is one of many sub-factors.
As c harris notes below, this is Corporations Gone Wild. In this case manufacturers, and especially distributors of medicine are fully to blame for the origin and continuation of this crisis.
Users are nothing but their target market. Doctors were, at first unwitting dupes, too lazy to do their own homework and too trusting to doubt outlandish claims of safety. Later, the docs jumped on the profit wagon.
Because this is America, and just as in the environmental debacles caused by coal, lumbering, oil, and the fossil fuel industries, we will hold corporations harmless, because business. And we will make certain the middle class and down foot this bill.
An interesting side note: all five of the top victim states appear as top ten unemployment states. They would be higher than that, but the list includes territories as well as states.
The article mentions long-term drug users moving to opioids. Let us not forget the crisis of the late twentieth century, created and fostered by the US Government. By a Republican administration, to be precise. Why? Money, of course.
Maybe you see where this is going...
3
Drug addiction the leading cause of death for Americans under 55. That should have been a wake-up call. What has the maladminstration or its GOP enablers done about it? Nothing. (see: Trump Declares Opioid Crisis a ‘Health Emergency’ but Requests No Funds.) Because after giving a bunch of money to rich people, we couldn't possibly afford to treat addiction. Or insure children, protect the environment or upgrade our infrastructure.
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Not to much can be done while large pharmaceutical suppliers like McKesson flood the market with opioids. I haven't seen many stories placing this crisis at a high priority. The Congress has been fully absorbed with tax cuts for rich people.
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It's pretty hard to 'flood the market' when you need a DEA number, tax ID number, prescription privileges, not to mention all the state paperwork. People who die from overdoses of heroin and fentanyl are not getting their drugs filled at the CVS pharmacy.
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Its not the pharmaceutical suppliers that are causing most of this. They're the convenient scapegoats because the real problems can't easily be solved.
The opiods causing the most deaths are pills but heroin and fentanyl. The pharms make fentanyl but not in the quantity that we're seeing now. Its coming from home labs but mostly from China. You can buy a kilo from a 'mom & pop' chemical company, there are over 100,000, for about $2000. That's enough to kill a city. They will help you divide the shipment up and to use Chinese, or even American, delivery companies to get it to you undetected.
So all this worry and howling at 'Big Pharma' and doctors is just a way to show that 'something' is being done. Even if its causing agony to people who do need the pills.
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The Opioid crisis is not about Big Pharma, Trump or the skin color of those dying each and every day across our country. It is about a despair that cuts across every possible demographic category TheUpshot cares to make their graphs from. We know how to treat the addiction, but not prevent it from happening.
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