this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Chapotraphouse

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50
Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 2003–2023 (hexbear.net)
submitted 3 days ago by hellinkilla@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net
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Key findings

Data from the National Vital Statistics System

The age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths increased from 8.9 deaths per 100,000 standard population in 2003 to 32.6 in 2022; however, the rate decreased to 31.3 in 2023. Rates decreased between 2022 and 2023 for people ages 15–54 and increased for adults age 55 and older. From 2022 to 2023, rates decreased for White non-Hispanic people, while rates for other race and Hispanic-origin groups generally stayed the same or increased. Between 2022 and 2023, rates declined for deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, heroin, and natural and semisynthetic opioids, while the rate for methadone remained the same. From 2022 to 2023, rates increased for deaths involving cocaine by 4.9% (from 8.2 to 8.6) and psychostimulants with abuse potential by 1.9% (10.4 to 10.6).

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db522.htm

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[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Much better graph from the source that illustrates where the cause lies:

"Synthetic opioids other than methadone" is mostly fentanyl. I highly doubt that such huge numbers of people are having lethal overdoses of tramadol and the like. Also shows that numbers from other opioids have remained mostly stable throughout, in comparison. A small but significant bump in heroin, that subsequently decreased. Could be linked to poor detection of fentanyl laced heroin that has improved over the years.

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago

ya it is def illicit fent and close siblings.

not surprised heroin-related deaths have gone down since it's damn near impossible to get pure heroin most places, even for those who prefer it.

My understanding is that there is a lot of bad data collection due to total inconsistency of expertise and resources in medical examiners. But I think we all know from our own lives that the huge upward line is not an illusion of any kind.

I was thinking of this in the context of the war on venezuela being about "drugs" but then didn't have enough time to read or think about it properly. I just keep being so surprised not even any libs are interested to check on that claim at all. (that I have noticed.)

[–] aanes_appreciator@hexbear.net 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

TIL you can die to methadone :o

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

it isn't very easy to do. mind the specific language "involving methadone". any death deemed an overdose where methadone is one of the substances is counted in that category.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

If the overdose rate in the population is that high, what percentage of the total population are drug addicts?

The peak opium addiction rate in China that I can find is 4.4%.

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

the term "addict" as a noun is not really useful or modern. there are broadly speaking 3 different things you might be describing:

  1. substance use disorder - is the persistent use of drugs/intoxicants despite substantial harm and adverse consequences to self and others.

  2. dependence - a physical change in a person's body chemistry whereby they must consume a drug or else they will go into a withdrawal which far exceeds any problems the drug may have been treating or mitigating.

  3. people who use drugs who are neither dependent nor having SUD - this is the majority of drug users by a wide margin. they are very vulnerable to overdose, especially once the drug supply became so toxic.

an individual drug user can experience one or any of those in varying degrees. "addiction" is used by the healthcare industry and colloquially to describe one or any or all of the intermingling and subsequent lifestyle adaptations. but it is also mixed up by criminalization of racialized and poor communities in such a profound way as to make disentangling almost impossible.

"addict" is considered a regressive term because it essentializes a person to one aspect, of which the label assignment is substantially based on their class position. it's like asking "what percentage of the total population are criminals?"

so there is no way to answer the questions without clarification on what it means. depending how you count, it varies wildly.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fair. Would you prefer antisocial drug dependency?

What I'm trying to say is drug use that is biologically driven at a level that it is antisocial and harmful to society. You can take from that classism, or you can take from that an honest appraisal of a certain section of society being hooked on something in a way that is not only damaging to themselves but damaging to the working class as a whole.

I do not believe all drug use can or should be completely destigmatised. Access to care absolutely should be but part of encouraging people to resolve these problems is preventing normalisation, particularly in local subcultures where groups of people normalise or create cultures around it that are incredibly harmful locally.

Literally fighting a drug battle in my area currently, which is one of the poorest in the UK.

Putting aside whether I am being too blunt/cold or not and thus potentially harmful to some drugs users my question still stands, I would very much like to know what the scale of this problem truly is.

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Well I guess it depends what you are describing exactly but in my observations, most drug use is pretty darn social. Drug users are some of the least atomized in the modern day especially when the drugs are illict. Also since the term "dependence" does have a specific meaning (being a physiological state) it might not capture what you want to describe. Like if people are doing any kind of binge use, they aren't dependent. But it can create a lot of issues.

I've heard the term "chaotic drug use" from harm reduction people.

To quantify it, you could look for wastewater studies. For UK on a quick search in found this https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wastewater-analysis-measuring-illicit-drug-consumption but it hardly contains any info. It might be published in academic lit somewhere with more details. Try web search with your city name + wastewater drugs.

[–] Awoo@hexbear.net 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's not social when it adversely affects anyone in the area that is not a drug user, it's explicitly antisocial. It drives away people who want to live normal lives and turns entire areas into areas where people are completely self destructing, it also attracts other forms of crime. Have you actually lived in an area with a drug problem?

We are talking about two completely different things I feel. Functional working drug users are relatively harmless, I am not talking about that.

[–] deforestgump@hexbear.net 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Drone strike Sackler family when?

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago

Sacklers are bad but the real failure is inadequate regulation in the context of capitalism.

[–] FnordPrefect@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago (3 children)

So, the second bump is presumably mostly attributable to various aspects of COVID/lockdowns. But what happened in 2015-17? Is that when Fentanyl started getting widespread?

[–] MarmiteLover123@hexbear.net 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Pretty much all fentanyl yeah. I uploaded another graph from the source in the thread.

[–] BabyTurtles@hexbear.net 3 points 3 days ago

I don't know how related it is, but this is also the same time that "alt-right" fascist rhetoric started exploding online, "anti-feminist"/"anti-SJW"/Ben Shapiro compilations where being spammed to YouTube, we had Gamergate, Pizzagate, QAnon.

[–] hellinkilla@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

my understanding is that the illicit production and distribution of fentanyl was refined around this time. just prior to this, a large number of people were introduced to opioids via prescriptions. this was due to lack of regulation/enforcement in the US pharmaceutical/medical industries. people were taking a lot of opioids that were prescribed to them, and also they were selling all/some of their prescribed meds to others. when this started to cause issues in communities, the reaction from Medicine was to swing the pendulum very quickly in the other direction and completely change their practice. there was a thing called "deprescribing" where doctors would just inform their patients they were to be cut off their meds, with very short notice. it was an intervention designed to decrease the overall supply of drugs available in the communities. as you may know, stopping opioids suddenly, no matter where you got them or why you are taking them, is extremely unpleasant. so the patients themselves, or the people who were buying their meds, needed to find an alternate source. the fent supply chain was there for them.

fentanyl as a pharmaceutical has been around for decades. in terms of illicit production, it is really a smart business choice due to its potency. when you are smuggling stuff in, volume matters. a very physically small package of fent is worth the same amount of money as a much much larger package of heroin. furthermore, heroin is derived from poppies, which must be farmed in fields and harvested by humans. someone else can give some info w r t afghanistan etc.

so the under regulation of licitly produced pharmaceuticals and and the over regulation (criminalization) of illicitly produced drugs were 2 of the contributing factors. there is also the concept of "deaths of despair".

[–] sewer_rat_420@hexbear.net 6 points 3 days ago

I believe it was when fentanyl was introduced, at least I remember hearing about fentanyl at that time.

I am also curious about the drop right before COVID. I am guessing that this is the beginning of naloxone being widely distributed?

[–] LeylaLove@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago

Came really close to becoming one of these stats a few years ago. If you're gonna use drugs, don't do it alone, and have some narcan around