Time for Intervention: Drug Overdoses Are Killing More People Than Cars, Guns The Huffington Post
go to original August 31, 2013

The world can be a dangerous place, but even with all the bad drivers, treacherous heights and violence, more people are dying from drug overdoses than from any other cause of injury death, including traffic accidents, falls or guns.

According to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control, drug overdoses were responsible for 38,329 deaths in 2010, 30,006 of which were unintentional. That's a rate of 105 every day, and that number doesn't take into account the 6,748 people treated every day for the misuse or abuse of drugs.

In comparison, traffic accidents were responsible for 33,687 deaths in 2010. Firearms killed 31,672 people, and 26,852 died as a result of falling.

The overdose epidemic is not a new phenomenon. The CDC reports that drug overdose death rates have risen steadily since 1992, seeing a 102 percent increase from 1999 to 2010. Drug overdose deaths first overtook traffic deaths in 2009 and continued to grow the subsequent year. Preliminary CDC estimates for 2011 suggest the trend has continued, though the report notes that the final number of overdose deaths may well be higher than the initial reported numbers, due to delays pending investigation of the cause of death.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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