Here's a sobering news article from JAMA:
US Ranks Highest in Global Overdose Deaths by Samantha Anderer,
JAMA. February 7, 2025. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.0240
"A recent Commonwealth Fund report confirmed that the US overdose death rate remains far higher than in any other country. In 2022, the US overdose rate was 324 deaths per 1 million people, 1.5 times greater than in Scotland, the second-ranked nation with 219 deaths per million people. Although Scotland saw fewer deaths in 2022 than in previous years, rates in the US continued to climb, up about 53% from 2019. For the third consecutive year, drug overdoses claimed more than 100 000 lives in the US, according to provisional 2023 data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The Commonwealth Fund report cited inadequate investment in treatment and prevention strategies as a major contributor to the discrepancy between the US and the rest of the globe. Only 11% of people in the US diagnosed with opioid use disorder reported receiving substitution therapy in 2020 compared with 87% in France and 51% in Scotland. "
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Here's the report:
U.S. Overdose Deaths Remain Higher Than in Other Countries — Trend-Tracking and Harm-Reduction Policies Could Help by Evan D. Gumas
"Provisional data show that drug overdoses in the United States claimed more than 100,000 lives for a third consecutive year in 2023 — a more than 50 percent jump since 2019. By a substantial margin, the U.S. has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the world, followed by Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory. And while Scotland and Canada, the second- and third-ranked countries, saw decreases from 2021 to 2022, rates in the U.S. have remained high. Our analysis, using the latest mortality data from 2022, compares the U.S. overdose rate — 324 deaths per 1 million people, or almost 108,000 deaths in 2022 — to dozens of countries from across the globe and finds that the U.S. unequivocally has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the world.
The U.S. can learn from other countries by tracking emerging trends and adopting comprehensive approaches to prevention and treatment that prioritize public health and harm reduction.
Source: Evan D. Gumas, “U.S. Overdose Deaths Remain Higher Than in Other Countries — Trend-Tracking and Harm-Reduction Policies Could Help,” To the Point (blog), Commonwealth Fund, Jan. 9, 2025. https://doi.org/10.26099/ppdk-qy10
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