Here’s a statistic I wouldn’t have predicted. From a column in the Wall Street Journal by Matthew Hennessey on the high rate of abuse of narcotics in New Hampshire:
The wisdom of Mr. Trump’s remark aside, the statistics in New Hampshire tell a bleak story. In a state of 1.3 million people, nearly 500 died last year due to overdoses—nearly three times as many as in 2012, according to data from the New Hampshire chief medical examiner’s office. Emergency rooms are packed with overdosing addicts and first responders are increasingly expected to bring people back from the brink of death. During a five-week period over the summer, firefighters in the city of Laconia administered 905% as many doses of the opioid antagonist Narcan as they did during the same period in 2016.
Earlier this month the New Hampshire attorney general filed a civil lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based company that manufactures OxyContin. The suit alleges that by engaging in deceptive marketing practices Purdue helped fuel the opioid crisis in New Hampshire. “The CDC reports 4 out of 5 heroin users started with prescription opioids,†said Deputy Attorney General Ann M. Rice in announcing the suit. “To defeat the epidemic, we must stop creating new users, and part of that is making sure these highly addictive and dangerous drugs are marketed truthfully and without deception.â€
New Hampshire’s opioid epidemic might have been spurred by abuse of prescriptions drugs like OxyContin. But it is fentanyl—the synthetic painkiller 50 times as potent as heroin—that really drives opioid-related fatalities in the state. New Hampshire ranks first in the nation for per capita deaths due to fentanyl. From 2010 to 2015, according to data from the National Drug Early Warning System, deaths related to fentanyl abuse increased by 1,629% in New Hampshire.
The emphasis is mine. I’m far from an expert on these subjects but my understanding is that fentanyl is frequently used because of its greater availability. And a lot of the fentanyl in this country is imported from elsewhere.
I heard Dr. Drew complaining that the media was mispresenting the opioid crisis as a West Virginia problem. Scanning the CDC reports (which I find only up to 2015), WV has the highest opioid death rates:
“West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000), Ohio (29.9 per 100,000), and Rhode Island (28.2 per 100,000).:
But probably not from fentanyl:
“Extremely high rates (>20) [of fentanyl encounters] were found for Ohio, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.”
A doctor who went to high school around here was recently killed in Northern Indiana by someone demanding opioids (and then killed self). Makes one wonder about the actual death toll.
Keep in mind that the reported severity of a problem will be correlated directly with the degree to which it affects New York, Washington, or Los Angeles.
Fentanyl is the most commonly used narcotic in ORs in the US. It is harder to divert now because of enforcement and because of the way it is now used. It is mostly diverted for personal use by medical people. See a fair number of accidental (assumed) suicides with it, even among people who know how to use it.
The epidemic is worst in a few areas, but you see it almost everywhere. I just had the county officials working on this come in and talk with my group about what they are doing and some new drug therapies they are introducing. Makes organ harvesting busier, that is for sure.
NY, DC and LA start out with higher baselines of drug issues, but they have also seen big increases recently. The Bronx, just as an example is sitting at a rate of 28 and Staten Island at 31 which is higher than Kentucky. It seems to me like it has gotten quite a bit of press, but then it is a problem in which I have some interest so I look for them. Tough issue to solve.
Steve
So,when President Trump called New Hampshire a “drug-infested denâ€, he was right, and all the Trump haters and #NeverTrump crowd were absolutely wrong.
I am holding my breath waiting for an apology.