[image-1]A new report from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation puts a fine point stamp on the opioid epidemic in the buckeye state.
According to the statistics from 2014, Ohio had the most fatal overdoses in the entire country, even outpacing California, which has three times as many residents.
For the 2014 calendar year, Ohio ended with 2,106 overdose deaths. That number climbed to 2,590 in 2015, according to the Ohio Department of Health. The number will be even higher in 2016.
Those dying in Ohio are overwhelmingly white males, accounting for two-thirds of deaths. Whites accounted for 90 percent of deaths overall. Twenty-five to 34-year-olds and 35 to 44-year-olds made up the largest demographic in terms of ages.
Locally, Cuyahoga County alone could reach 600 deaths by the end of the year (note: 2015 saw 228 deaths in the county), despite being below the state average of 19.2 fatal overdoses per 100,000 residents.
As experts have said over and over again this year, heroin and related drugs are a public health crisis that threatens to wipe out an entire generation.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2016.
Why Ohio? Despair over the economy? The lack of education? What makes people here do this?
I’m not nave or stupid, at least I like to think so, but I don’t understand. I’m an old geezer, so I lived through the Sixties and Seventies, and believe me, I did more than my share of inhaling. Did a lot of other stupid things, too. Watched junkies shooting up in New York and out West. But I was never dumb enough to join them. It wasn’t just the fear and horror of needles, either. I liketothin
There’s no coming back after one subjects themselves with this poison. It’s their choice, their not contributing anything to help our society, just making it worse with crime and high insurance policies for help they don’t want. I say let the junkies wipe out their kind, their just walking, nodding out disgusting lowlifes, good riddens!
I started to say “I like to think I am too smart to get hooked,” but some pretty smart people have become junkies.. Why Oh Why Oh Why Ohio? Are there just a lot of stupid lowlifes here, or what? Gotta be a more complex reason than stupidity and lowlifery. Especially if we outrank California. It’s the economy–right , stupids??
Chuckles the Clown
I was a very productive citizen for a long time. Made a lot of money, paid a lot in taxed. I tryed dope when I was 32 now I’m 34 and have nothing. This drug does not discriminate and I hope it puts its hooks in you (the truth for all) just so you can see we are not disgusting lowlifes, we are people just like you.