March 19, 2019—Just how bad is the nation's drug overdose problem? Let’s put it this way: Deadly overdose death rates in the U.S. are higher than in other wealthy nations—from Australia to the UK. And they've been that way for more than a decade. Americans are now more likely to die from an opioid overdose than in a car crash.
That's the word from a new study in Population and Development Review and a National Safety Council (NSC) report.
The study looked at death records from 18 high-income countries. Deaths from both legal and illegal drugs (including opioids) were measured. It found that U.S. overdose death rates have more than tripled in the past two decades. They're now 3.5 times higher on average than those of 17 similar countries.
In 2017 alone, more than 70,000 people died from overdoses in the U.S. What's more, the life-expectancy gap between the U.S. and other high-income countries is getting even wider, in part because of drug overdoses. American are living 2.6 fewer years than people in similar countries, according to the research team. For example, fatal overdoses are 27 times more common than in Italy and Japan (which have the lowest death rates).
Overdoses vs. car accidents
The study comes on the heels of a January NSC report that found opioids now kill more often than car wrecks. The chances of dying from an accidental opioid overdose are 1 in 96—compared to 1 in 103 for a car crash.
So what has fueled the overdose crisis? The research team cited a number of causes. One is the rise of the prescription painkiller OxyContin that began a few decades ago. Heroin and fentanyl have since become an even bigger part of the overdose epidemic than prescription pain pills. The researchers also noted a lack of substance abuse treatment in the U.S. Only about 10 percent of those who need treatment receive it, they said.