The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday released a report related to drug overdose in America. The report revealed that death cases that had been caused by drug overdose increased by 17 percent in comparison with figures from 2015. The report further sought to explain the rising issue of drug addiction problem in America that has been contributed to the use of opioid. The report had been written using data that had been collected from 50 states. Also, the data was collected between the fourth quarters of 2015 and 2016. The statistics were stunning. For instance, deaths from overdoses rose to 20 people in a population of 100,000. The initial value before the study was 16.3 people in a population of 100,000. An earlier report by the CDC had concluded that 64,000 people died from death overdoses one year ago. The report further found out that the states that are affected most include Rhode Island, Ohio, West Virginia as well as Kentucky and New Hampshire. The report said that drug overdoses had become the leading cause of death for citizens below the age of 50. CDC chief Dr. Robert Anderson said that they had discovered that synthetic opioid was the leading killer. It had overtaken heroin. Dr. Anderson said that the report revealed that drug addiction rate had gone up and everyone was worried.
According to the CDC chief, the latest report should be considered as a preliminary report and not a final report. The report contains other leading death causes such as heart attack and cancer. Brandeis University director of opioid policy research Dr. Andrew Kolodny says that he was not surprised by the numbers. He further clarified that there are two groups of Americans that are becoming addicted. He said that there was the older group that was overdosing on pain medicine. He further said that there was another one that consisted of the young people that were overdosing on opioids that have been obtained from the black market. The doctor further said that there is a decrease in the number of teenagers becoming addicted to painkillers. He said that the young people who had been addicted during their 20s are still in danger of consuming opioids that have been mixed with heroin. At the same time, there are some cases where fentanyl has been sold heroin, and this had led to catastrophic outcomes. Just the other day, President Trump declared the opioid crisis as a public health emergency.