Friday, October 2, 2009

CDC Report

Drugs Set Deadly Trend

In the Oct. 1 edition of the Kansas City Star there was an article datelined Atlanta from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This article highlighted that as of 2006 data in 16 states deaths from drugs outnumbered deaths from automobile crashes in those states. Nationwide auto crash deaths are greater than drug deaths but within these states drug deaths outnumber auto related deaths. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington hold the dubious honor of these statistics.

You can read the whole article at this link:
http://www.kansascity.com/news/local/story/1481612.html

I have a belief that the horror of this epidemic will not be realized until the local news begins to cover the deaths of addicts in the same way they cover the deaths in auto crashes. My personal belief is most people not closely associated with addiction probably just shrugs off the death of another "low life, drug addict". Perception is a real problem that we with addicted loved ones face in our families and community.

"Drug overdoses make up the vast majority of the drug related deaths, and there was a sharp increase in fatalities tied to cocaine and to drugs known as opioid analgesics - including methadone, fentanyl, sedatives and prescription pain killers such as Vicodin and Oxycontin." Mike Stobbe, Associated Press

This is data from the last year available, 2006. I have to believe the problem has gotten no better in 2009. The CDC does not yet have finalized data for 2007 and subsequent years.

Margaret Warner, epidemiologist with the CDC who co-authored the report, "Drug poisonings are definitely going up."

4 comments:

Sherry said...

The statistics are probably higher for the drug deaths, because I'm sure they don't do autopsies on every one that died in a car accident and some of them were probably on drugs!

Sherry said...

Actually, if you count cigarettes and alcohol as drugs, the statistics I'm sure are staggering!

clean and crazy said...

you know and almost 90 percent of the crime today is also drug related. why this is not something news media talks about i don't know.
like the officer shot this week and the kid beaten to death. how much do you wanna bet both those incidences, the suspects had at least weed in their systems? i mean when i went to treatment people were saying i just smoke weed, like it isn't a drug that changes your brain chemistry.
nobody cares when an addict dies unless they are famous like MJ or that DJ that died. or Anna Nichole Smith. that is the face of addiction they want to show, not the real faces of our children, husbands and wives.

Bar L. said...

You are 100% right and it makes me FURIOUS that the media has so much time to devote to all the f*cking unimportant crap out there and ignores this EPIDEMIC that is growing and growing. They would rather report a juicy gossip story than something that is "ugly and depressing" but vitally important.