Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide hit a record-high in 2017, according to new analyses of CDC data.
In 2017, more than 150,000 Americans were killed by those three causes, double the number in 1999, the report by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT) reveals.
Despite claims of progress to combat depression, alcoholism, and addiction, the report shows we have barely made a dent.
Rates rose again last year, up 6 percent from the year before.
That increase is lower than the previous two years (which saw 11- and 7-percent rises respectively), but it is barely noticeable on a bleak graph laying bare the rate of lives still claimed by substances and torment.
Rates of death from drugs, alcohol and suicide have rocketed to more than double the 1999 rates
Data from the CDC, mapped out by Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and Well Being Trust (WBT), show how these causes have swept up lives in the US over time
As this map shows, New Mexico is one of the hardest-hit, with more than double the rate of deaths from all three causes than in its neighboring Texas
This is what we may be heading to without better prevention efforts, experts warn
Today, 46.6 deaths per 100,000 are attributable to drugs, alcohol or suicide.
Certain groups and regions are harder-hit than others.
Men, and people aged 35-54, are more likely to die of those causes.
Rates are highest in Virginia and New Mexico: in Virginia those causes are responsible for 99 deaths per 100,000; in New Mexico, 77.
Texas and Mississippi have the lowest rates of death from alcohol, drugs, and suicide - with 31.5 and 34.1 deaths per 100,000
