What Is the Worst State for Overdose Deaths?
It’s interesting that certain states, with the same population as other states, have significantly lower overdose rates.
What are these states doing differently? The location has a lot to do with the number of drugs that enter a state. The question is, what precautions are being taken to not only combat the drugs that enter the state, but to help the people who are using them?
I would be curious to go state by state to see what works or doesn’t work and implement the successful actions on a nationwide scale.
34. Georgia
8.8 per 100,000 people
There were 918 opioid-related deaths in Georgia in 2016.
33. Colorado
9.5 per 100,000 people
536 for opioid-related deaths occurred in 2016. The number of deaths from both heroin and synthetic opioids has increased.
32. Washington
9.7 per 100,000 people
There were 209 opioid-related deaths in 2016 in Washington State. Synthetic opioid deaths have increased steadily over the last three years in the state.
31. Arizona
11.4 per 100,000 people
769 overdose deaths occurred in Arizona during 2016, with heroin-related deaths as the main contributor to the increase in overdose deaths.
30. Oklahoma
11.6 per 100,000 people
Oklahoma had 444 opioid-related deaths in 2016. Heroin overdoses have increased, but prescription opioid deaths have decreased.
29. Alaska
12.5 per 100,000 people
94 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in Alaska in 2016. The increase over the last several years has been mainly caused by an increase in heroin overdoses.
28. Indiana
12.6 per 100,000 people
There were 794 opioid-related deaths in 2016. A large increase in heroin-related overdoses has occurred over the last several years.
27. South Carolina
13.1 per 100,000 people
628 drug overdose deaths resulted from opioid drug use in the state of South Carolina in 2016. This was due to a combination of synthetic opioids and a heroin overdose increase.
26. Nevada
13.3 per 100,000 people
408 Drug-related deaths occurred in 2016 due to prescription opioids, synthetic opioids, and heroin.
25. Virginia
13.5 per 100,000 people
1,130 Overdose deaths occurred in Virginia during 2016. Overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids have skyrocketed from 87 to 648.
24. Florida
14.4 per 100,000 people
2,798 deaths occurred in Florida in 2016, with an alarming amount of overdose deaths occurring from synthetic opioids—an increase from 200 in 2013 to over 1,500 in 2016.
23. New York
15.1 per 100,000 people
Deaths from prescription opioids doubled between 2009 and 2016 with 1,100 deaths in 2016. Heroin-related deaths more than doubled during the same period.
22. Illinois
15.3 per 100,000 people
The number of deaths from opioid-related overdoses more than tripled between 1999 and 2016, with 1,947 annual deaths in the state of Illinois.
21. North Carolina
15.4 per 100,000 people
1,505 people in the state of North Carolina died due to opioid drugs in 2016. Both heroin-related deaths and synthetic opioid deaths drastically increased over the last several years.
20. Wisconsin
15.8 per 100,000 people
865 opioid-related deaths happened in Wisconsin during 2016, with deaths from heroin and synthetic opioids (mainly fentanyl) more than doubling and prescription opioids deaths also increasing.
19. Missouri
15.9 per 100,000 people
There were 914 opioid-related overdose deaths in Missouri during 2016. Synthetic opioid overdose deaths accounted for 441 of the deaths while heroin accounted for 380.
18. New Jersey
16 per 100,000 people
There were 1,409 opioid-related deaths in New Jersey during 2016. With 689 of those deaths caused by synthetic opioids and the largest part caused by heroin with 850 deaths.
17. Utah
16.4 per 100,000 people
466 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in Utah during 2016.
16. Delaware
16.9 per 100,000 people
With 154 opioid-related overdose deaths in Delaware during 2016, Delaware finds itself high on the list due to the number of overdoses compared to the population size of the state.
15. New Mexico
17.5 per 100,000 people
349 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in New Mexico, with 78 overdose deaths being caused by synthetic opioids and 161 overdose deaths from heroin. However the number of prescription overdose deaths decreased.
14. Tennessee
18.1 per 100,000 people
1,186 opioid-related overdose deaths occurred in Tennessee, with the largest amount of deaths being 739.
13. Vermont
18.4 per 100,000 people
101 opioid-related occurred in Vermont in 2016. For a smaller state, this is a large percentage of its population.
12. Michigan
18.5 per 100,000 people
In 2016, opioid-related overdoses created 1,762 deaths, 727 of which were caused by Heroin.
