More West Virginians are cutting their lives short

Americans are killing themselves at ever higher rates.

A new report by the Trust for America’s Health and Well Being says “Deaths from synthetic opioids continue to rise sharply and suicides are growing at the fastest pace in years.”  Add in alcohol, and the number of Americans who died from one of these three causes (or a combination of the three) in 2017 reached over 150,000, more than twice as many as in 1999.

Powerful synthetic opioids are fueling much of the increase.  The death rate from these drugs has gone up ten-fold in the last five years.  “Americans are now dying at a faster rate from overdoses involving synthetic opioids than they did from all drugs in 1999,” according to the report.

As a result, life expectancy in the United States has declined for the third year in a row.

Tragically, West Virginia leads the way.  Our deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide have risen from less than 30 per 100,000 people twenty years ago to more than 80 per 100,000 people in 2017.  The death rate increased 13 percent in just one year—from 2016 to 2017.

According to the report, 264 deaths in West Virginia in 2017 were attributed to alcohol. That’s an increase of 15 percent from the year before.

Suicides in 2017 increased by nine percent from the previous year, accounting for 393 deaths.

The biggest scourge, however, is synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl and carfentanil. The researchers say these drugs, as well as their analogs, are “extremely dangerous, proving deadly in minuscule amounts.”

The report said 618 West Virginians died while using synthetic opioids in 2017. That’s an increase of 43 percent from 2016 and a death rate of 34 for every 100,000 people.  That’s four times higher than the national average (8.7 per 100,000) and higher than 41 other states for which figures were available.

Notably, Ohio was not far behind West Virginia. Its death rate from synthetic opioids was 30 per 100,000 in 2017, a 53 percent increase from the year before.

West Virginia public health experts, policy makers, first responders and law enforcement have turned an increasing amount of attention to our drug problem.  There have been notable successes. For example, Cabell County is on pace for just under two drug overdose calls per day, down from five per day in 2017.

But as the numbers indicate, this is an ongoing battle.

As the report concludes, “These new data reinforce the need for a multi-faced, multi-sector response, including the health care, mental health, public health, education, economic development, criminal justice, family service, and other sectors.”

In other words, just about every part of West Virginia has a role in trying to lessen the substance abuse crisis.  Like it or not, we’re all in this together.





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