Opiate addiction is a chronic brain disease that if left untreated will only get worse over time. Opiates are often used interchangeably, and that is fueling the reemergence of heroin as a significant factor on the illicit drug scene.
Opiate abuse statistics reveal the extent of the misuse of these dangerous drugs, which are initiating a public health crisis:
- Opiates are the second most abused category of illicit drugs, trailing only marijuana.
- According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2019, nearly 50,000 people in the United States died from opioid-involved overdoses.
- 80 percent of people suffering from heroin addiction misused prescription opiates before turning to their illicit cousin.
- Doctors issued 191,218,272 opioid prescriptions in 2017, which was a slight decline from 2006 to 2016 which they issued 200,000,000 opioid prescriptions every year.
- About 80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
- Overall, Americans consume about 80 percent of the world’s supply of opiate painkillers, while Canada and Western Europe consume 15 of the remaining 20 percent.
- Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and opiates account for at least 70 percent of the casualties.
