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When I opened this, I thought they meant 72000 on the whole world. Nope, it's just the US. That's an unbelievably high number to me.

by akuji1993 8y ago

jgtrosh 8y ago
It's staggering! I just compared with traffic accident fatalities in 2017 and it's 40,200 (according to [1]). It hadn't occurred to me that drugs were a bigger killer than traffic accidents. Now maybe there's a big overlap over the two figures? Edit: just realized the drug death count is only for ODs, so the overlap wouldn't be significant. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-...
DanBC 8y ago
Look at the rate of opioid use in the US compared to the rest of the world. The US consumes about 99% of the world supply of hydrocodone. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/15/americans-use-far-more-opioids-than-anyone-else-in-the-world/?utm_term=.b5705cca9112 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/15/ameri... These figures are old (2015), but eye-opening. http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/who-regional-office-americas-amro http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/who-regional-office-americas-... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/amro_oxycodone.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/amro_morphine.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... Here's EURO http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/euro_oxycodone.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/euro_morphine.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... You can use that site to compare regions. http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/explore-data http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/explore-data
glbrew 8y ago
It really is huge. It is so high experts describe it as a "demographic change," It is literally changing the demographics and population distribution of the US.

When I opened this, I thought they meant 72000 on the whole world. Nope, it's just the US. That's an unbelievably high number to me.

jgtrosh 8y ago

It's staggering! I just compared with traffic accident fatalities in 2017 and it's 40,200 (according to [1]). It hadn't occurred to me that drugs were a bigger killer than traffic accidents. Now maybe there's a big overlap over the two figures? Edit: just realized the drug death count is only for ODs, so the overlap wouldn't be significant. [1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-safety.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/business/highway-traffic-...

DanBC 8y ago

Look at the rate of opioid use in the US compared to the rest of the world. The US consumes about 99% of the world supply of hydrocodone. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/15/americans-use-far-more-opioids-than-anyone-else-in-the-world/?utm_term=.b5705cca9112 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/03/15/ameri... These figures are old (2015), but eye-opening. http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/who-regional-office-americas-amro http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/who-regional-office-americas-... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/amro_oxycodone.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/amro_morphine.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... Here's EURO http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/euro_oxycodone.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/files/euro_morphine.pdf http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/sites/default/files/sites/www... You can use that site to compare regions. http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/explore-data http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/explore-data

glbrew 8y ago

It really is huge. It is so high experts describe it as a "demographic change," It is literally changing the demographics and population distribution of the US.