Overdose Deaths Skyrocket

The national overdose death rate (especially opiate overdose death) has skyrocketed over the last decade and is alarmingly enough it is still rising. Georgia ranks 36th in the country.

Drug and alcohol addiction has now become a NATIONAL health crisis as each state is doing everything possible to combat this escalating problem. This epidemic has led to many states instituting laws to help save the countless lives that are being lost to drug and alcohol overdose. Among these laws is the Medical Amnesty 911 Law, also known as the Good Samaritan Law that the state of Georgia has implemented in an effort to save lives. It allows individuals to call in a drug overdose at any time without the fear of legal consequences even if illegal drugs and paraphernalia are found at the scene of the overdose.

Many individuals using drugs do not call for medical assistance when a person is overdosing because of the fear that police/paramedics/first responders will find illegal drugs and the callers will face prosecution and a slew of drug charges. In light of the skyrocketing overdose deaths Georgia law enforcement is less concerned with punishing drug and alcohol addicts and more invested in saving lives.

Trust for America’s Health is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to saving lives by protecting the health of every community and working to make disease prevention a national priority. For more information, visit www.healthyamericans.org.

Rankings are based on data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, WONDER Online Database. The numbers are based on the number of people per 100,000.

Sources:

“Promoting Health and Cost Control in States.” Trust for America’s Health. 6 Mar. 2019. https://www.tfah.org/

Cuningham, Aimee. “Drug Overdose Deaths in America Are Rising Exponentially.” Science News. 6 Mar. 2019. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/drug-overdose-deaths-america-are-rising-exponentially

“Overdose Death Rates.” NIDA. 6 Mar. 2019. https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates