Coast to coast, major U.S. cities are seeing measurable drops in drug overdose deaths. Public health officials welcome the news despite an inability to fully explain the decrease.
After years of rising, the tide may finally be turning on deadly drug overdoses in America.
Drug overdose deaths fell 12.7% in the 12 months ending in May, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is the largest recorded reduction in overdose deaths,” White House officials said in a statement. “And the sixth consecutive month of reported decreases in predicted 12-month total numbers of drug overdose deaths.”
It’s also the first time since early 2021 that the number of estimated drug overdose deaths for a 12-month period fell below 100,000, to 98,820.
It’s categorically good news. It’s also a bit puzzling to the public health experts who have been working for years to stop the upward trajectory of opioid deaths, driven primarily by fentanyl.
Because druggies are dying and are not being replaced fast enough
Doctor’s are being watched for how many pills the prescribe. Add education to a new generation that watched their parents destroy their lives.
Gotta ask how many of those overdose pills were actually prescribed, rather than illicit from the start.
A lot of them. So many that there are class action lawsuits because of over-prescription. Make no mistake pharmaceutical companies are AT THE HEART of this epidemic.
John Oliver did 4 stories on them. I highly recommend watching them. Youtube has them all for free.
One town in West Virginia was prescribed something crazy like a thousand per person (my number could be way off but it was a massive red flag for the feds).
Edit: The Sackler family is the owners behind it.
There were pharmacies refilling prescriptions indefinitely, including expired ones.
Or I knew of at least one pharmacy that was in my area. That helped keep the flow going. The prescription was just the first step.
Also people would hit a range of pharmacies on ome prescription.
