opioid use and abuse would have declined.
“I think any optimist would hope that the numbers would go down,” Bhuiya Ahmad shares. “But so far, we’re seeing that the increase is sustained — it just continues to rise, we haven’t seen it leveling off.”
The spread of the powerful opioid fentanyl throughout the nation’s illegal drug market has also played a major part in the increase of overdoses.
What the statistics show
Deaths have risen in every state except South Dakota, New Hampshire and New Jersey, the findings show. The largest increases in opioid deaths were seen in California, Kansas, the mid-Atlantic states, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Annual overdose deaths were up nearly 50% in California, 37% in Kansas, 56% in Louisiana and 48% in Mississippi. Virginia had a nearly 46% increase, as did South Carolina, and in West Virginia deaths rose 62%, the researchers found.
“The staggering death toll is devastating, and it is even more tragic because addiction is a preventable and treatable disease,” Vuolo says. “Research shows us what we need to do; we just lack the will to make the significant, albeit necessary, changes.”
Opioid Addiction: 5 Things Everyone Should Know
Getting treatment
“Prior to COVID, it was already very difficult to get addiction treatment,” she notes. “Our current addiction treatment system wasn’t able to meet existing demand before the pandemic and certainly won’t be able to support this type of demand increase.”
Vuolo suggested that “to immediately address the crisis, we need to significantly expand the tools we have to prevent opioid overdoses, including increasing access to FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder and naloxone, the opioid reversal medication.”
In the long term, more needs to be done to address addiction as a health condition by fully integrating it with the mainstream health care system, she says. This will require major changes, including increasing training in substance use and addiction treatment. Also, insurance companies must obey laws that cover addiction treatment so that care is affordable and accessible.
“We need a greater focus on prevention by implementing initiatives that promote healthy youth development and reduce risk factors. We also need to expand services to support individuals in recovery and families impacted by addiction,” Vuolo adds.
“To effectively make these changes, we have to continue to root out stigma against addiction, which remains pervasive among the public and professionals who interact with people with addiction,” she concludes. “There is now greater recognition that addiction is not a moral failing, but stigma is still reflected in the lack of urgency and willingness to adopt the major changes necessary to address the addiction crisis.”
Addiction is difficult. It can cause you to feel powerless and like recovery is out of your reach. Don’t give up. Help is within your grasp regardless of how many times you’ve been down this road before. The SAMHSA National Helpline is only one phone call away (1-800-662-4357).