Since 1980, the number of us who die of drug overdoses has quadrupled. Most of these deaths now result from prescription drugs, especially painkillers. “The dichotomy between good drugs prescribed by doctors and bad drugs sold on the street is just bad science,” one doctor told The New York Times a couple of years back.
The really upsetting maps above show this change over the decade that ended in 2009. Appalachia and New Mexico, as popular culture would lead you to expect, were particularly bad areas for drug fatalities fifteen years ago, but now, the problem is clearly a national one. “What other people had been saying was that this was predominantly a rural problem of drug poisoning,” Lauren Rossen, one of the people who put together this analysis, told me. “We were somewhat surprised to find that drug poisoning death rates were actually highest in metropolitan areas.” Exceptions are the state of New York and a narrow band running through the center of the contiguous states, from North Dakota to Texas. Click “Know More” to read more about this troubling trend. |
