Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. have reached World War II casualty rates

In the twenty-first century, the United States is undergoing a major experiment in the gradual decriminalization of drugs, including hard drugs. Local residents and authorities believed that this would provide better health care for drug addicts. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a very different outcome: overdose deaths in the States have become four times more frequent. As a result, as many Americans are dying from them as during World War II.

The new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on overdose deaths covers the year 2022. As the report's authors noted, 107,941 people died this way in the 12 months of this year, meaning there were about nine thousand deaths a month, or one death every five minutes. By comparison, the states had a similar level of deaths per unit of time in their armed forces in World War II, and in the Vietnam War their casualties per unit of time were dozens of times lower.

According to the report, there are now 32.6 overdose deaths per 100,000 people in the States each year. In 2002, there were only 8.2 per 100,000, that is, four times less. On the positive side, the authors noted a slowdown in this increase over the past year: if in 2021 the rate was 32.4, in 2022 - only a little more.

Nevertheless, 32.6 deaths per 100,000 people per year is a huge level. For example, it was the same level of deaths from homicide in Russia in the 1990s. By comparison, in 2023 it's slightly less than five per 100,000, and that's despite the fact that civilian shooting victims in it are also recorded as homicides. Even in the United States, where the crime situation is more severe, 6.8 people per 100 thousand die from homicides. It turns out that today, overdoses claim several times more American lives than homicides.

The problem of overdose deaths is acute worldwide. For example, in Russia, in the same year 2022, 10.0 thousand people died from them - about 6.66 per 100 thousand population. This is markedly higher than the number of homicide victims in Russia. However, in countries without drug decriminalization, such rates are usually substantially lower than in the U.S. now.

For the planet as a whole, the number of overdose deaths is estimated at half a million annually. In other words, typical global values are roughly on par with modern Russia, slightly lower than in the States in 2002, and five times lower than in the U.S. today.

The report's authors also emphasized the uneven distribution of such deaths across racial groups. For example, for Indians they recorded 65.2 deaths per 100,000, for blacks - 47.5 per 100,000. For Asians, the figure was only 5.3, a dozen times less than for Indians.

The role of the "fentanyl epidemic" (summarized as the expansion of all synthetic opioids in this country) that has swept the States in recent years is shown separately. According to the report, approximately two-thirds of all overdose deaths are attributed to substances in this group.

The concept of drug decriminalization continues to be popular in the US (Oregon recently passed similar laws for hard drugs). On this basis, it is to be expected that drug deaths in the States will remain high in the future. This can be seen from the similar sharp increase in such deaths in Canada, which has gone even further in decriminalizing drugs than the United States.

This experience is of great interest to Russia. After all, as we know, the voices of those who demand decriminalization of drugs along American or Canadian lines are increasingly heard here.