Crashing the Party

Going from a peak of more than 40,000 annual deaths, 2008 saw a significant decline in drunk driving across thirty-two states. But a new wave in accidental death is crashing into public awareness. In what promises to be a much disputed cause& effect célèbre, deaths from drug use, in twelve states, have now surpassed drunken driving deaths.

 

The statistics are indeed becoming frightening: drug deaths have increased 65% in the period of 1999 through 2004. While traffic deaths have continued a downward trend, with a single-year aberrant jump (2008), drug induced deaths show no sign of diminishing. The euphemistic approach of defining the problem of drug overdoses may even be seen in a typical coroner’s description of any one of almost 20,000 drug over-dose deaths in 2008…overdoses are recorded as “poisonings.”

 

In reality, almost 95% of all supposed ‘poisonings’ were drug overdoses.

 

The increased availability and misuse of prescription drugs is cited as a common cause. Overdose Deaths among white women far outpaced overdoses by any other single group (thirty points higher than white males, the second demographic). The greatest single demographic increase was among 15-24 year olds.

 

In what may serve as a demographic earthquake, West Virginia’s drug overdose rate rose 550%, from 1999 to 2004.

 

There have always been unintended costs for any gains. In 2007, for example, as traffic fatalities sank to a historic low, virtually every state saw an increase in motorcycle fatalities involving drinking. While the federal Department of Transportation insisted tougher laws and enforcement would accomplish even lower numbers, there were potentially overlooked reality checks…as people were increasingly prevented from driving cars, more people with suspended licenses were attempting to travel via motorcycle.

 

The bottom line is that law enforcement and judicial administration appear to be falling significantly behind in any real system to flatten the death-from-drug curve. Drug overdose continue to drive their way to the finish line, Public Enemy Number One.