Drug Use by State Report: 2017’s Problem Areas

May 15, 2017 - With the White House sending mixed messages about how it plans to deal with drug abuse, establishing a commission to study the Opioid epidemic yet proposing to cut the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s budget by 95%, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released a study on the States with the Biggest Drug Problems in 2017 to highlight the areas that stand to be most affected.

This study compares the 50 states and the District in terms of 15 key metrics, ranging from arrest and overdose rates to Opioid prescriptions and meth-lab incidents per capita. You can find some highlights below.
 

States with the Biggest Drug Problems
1	District of Columbia		11	New Hampshire
2	Vermont		12	West Virginia
3	Colorado		13	New York
4	Delaware		14	Indiana
5	Rhode Island		15	Louisiana
6	Oregon		16	Missouri
7	Connecticut		17	Maine
8	Arizona		18	Maryland
9	Massachusetts		19	Washington
10	Michigan		20	North Carolina

 
Key Stats:

• Alabama has 142.9 opioid pain reliever prescriptions for every 100 residents, leading the nation. On the other end of the spectrum, there are 52.0 opioid prescriptions for every 100 Hawaiians.
   
• West Virginia has 42 drug overdose deaths for every 100,000 residents. That is six times more than Nebraska, which has the fewest overdose deaths, at 7 per 100,000 residents.
   
• Colorado has the highest percentage of teens who used illicit drugs in the past month, at 14.58 percent. That is 2.5 times higher than in Iowa, which has the lowest rate (6.31 percent).
   
• New Jersey has the highest percentage of teens who have been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on school property, at 30.70 percent. That is 2.6 times higher than in Iowa (11.90 percent), the state with the lowest rate.
   
• Colorado has the highest percentage of adults who used illicit drugs in the past month, at 17.06 percent, topping South Dakota’s low (5.76 percent) by 2.8 times.
   
• At 16.50 percent, the percentage of New Mexico teens who  tried marijuana before age 13 is 4.3 times higher than in Utah (3.70 percent), where teens are least likely to do so.
   
• Nearly 9 out of every 1,000 South Dakotans have been arrested for a drug violation, which is the country’s highest rate. Vermont, at the low end, has just over 1 drug arrest per 1,000 residents.
   
• The District of Columbia has the highest percentage of adults who needed but didn’t receive treatment for illicit drug use in the past year, at 3.21 percent. That is 1.5 times higher than in Wyoming (1.83 percent), which has the lowest rate.  

 
To view the full report and learn about drug abuse in your state, please visit: 
https://wallethub.com/edu/drug-use-by-state/35150/   

source: WalletHub May 15, 2017
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Editors note:The report mentions the White House commission on Opioid epidemic. I am concerned of the lack of Chronic Pain Patients being acknowledged and excluded for the purpose of the report, and in the report synopsis. Jim W.