WV LEADS NATION WITH OPIOID CRISIS DURING NATIONAL PANDEMIC

(04/02/2020)

The opioid crisis has been a present force in West Virginia for a number of years, and a new report says the Mountain State has the largest opioid problem in the U.S. Also the meth addiction problem has reached epidemic levels. The opioid crisis was declared a public health emergency in 2017, when there were 47,600 deaths from opioids in that year alone. To find out which states have suffered the most from the opioid epidemic, as well as which opioids are responsible for the most overdoses, researchers at 360 Quote analyzed data from the CDC Wonder database, which reports on causes of death related to opioid use. The report stated that when comparing the age-adjusted opioid death rate in each state, states in the west have fared far better than states in the east, especially the Rust Belt. The report also stated that in the ten states that were most impacted by the opioid crisis, synthetic narcotics such as fentanyl and tramadol were the opioid category with the highest death rate in 2017. The report found that West Virginia was the state that was most impacted by the opioid crisis, with an age adjusted opioid overdose death rate of 49.6 per 100,000 people and 833 opioid-related deaths in 2017. The report found that the most common opioid category in the state was synthetic opioids (other than methadone). The report also stated that the most impacted age group were adults between the ages of 30-34 (119.7 per 100,000 people), and the most impacted county was Cabell County (157.6 per 100,000 people).

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