Shocking Drug Abuse Statistics: What You Need to Know

Shocking Drug Abuse Statistics: What You Need to Know

Every year the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics releases an updated list that covers a multitude of facts on the most common substances being used.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that drug use and misuse is only on the rise.

In the United States , 50% of people 12 years of age and older, have used illicit drugs at least once in their lifetime.

Since 2000 there have been over 700,000 deaths contributed to drug overdoses in the United States alone.

In 2020, the federal budget that was allocated towards drug control reached $35 billion.

Jumping ahead to 2022, the amount put towards the federal budget increased to over $39 billion.

Drug overdose deaths have now reached a 30% increase in the last year. The opioid crisis has played a major role in the rise of overdose deaths in recent years.

The national overdose death rate is 21.6 deaths per 100,000 residents

In 2020 alone, there were a whopping 42,700 deaths caused by a fentanyl overdose.

In recent years, the rate of fentanyl overdoses has risen 2.5 times faster than the rate of heroin overdoses

Fentanyl overdoses have completely outpaced prescription opioid overdoses by over 550%

Learn about more the rise of U.S. Addiction Rates and what is being done to combat them from Diamond Recovery