Startling numbers from a new study shows more Americans are dying from drug overdose. The report looks at deaths from drug overdoses from 1995 to 2015 and called them a significant public health burden in the United States.
Here are some statistics from the Centers for Disease Control report.
Overdoses are more common
The percentage of drug overdoses involving heroin tripled from eight percent in 2010 to 25 percent in 2015. There are also increases in deaths from cocaine and methamphetamines.
The problem is on the rise among several racial groups
The study found that overdose rates rose for Hispanic people and non-Hispanic black people and at an average rate of two percent per year. Those numbers were higher for non-Hispanic white people, whose overdose rate increased at a seven percent average each year.
Those were the racial groups highlighted in the report.
Overdose victims are older
While overdoses were up among all age groups, in 2015, adults 45-years-old to 54-years-old have the highest rate of overdose deaths.
The overdose rates in several age groups from 25 to 64-years-olds were more than twice that for younger adults in the 15 to 24 year old range.
These are national numbers, locally, the increase of heroin related deaths jumped nearly 4000%.