Drug abuse leading cause of injury deaths in US: Report
Drug abuse in the United States has reached “epidemic levels” where they are the leading cause of injury-related deaths, surpassing car accidents and gun violence, according to a new US government report.
About 46,470 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2013, the last year which data was available, while 35,369 people were killed in traffic-related accidents and 33,636 were killed by guns, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said Wednesday.
"Drug abuse is ending too many lives too soon and destroying families and communities,” DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said.
"We must reach young people at an even earlier age and teach them about its many dangers and horrors."
The DEA is a federal law enforcement agency under the US Department of Justice tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States.
Drug overdose deaths have risen sharply in the last ten years, up more than 50 percent from 30,711 fatalities in 2004.
"Overdose deaths, particularly from prescription drugs and heroin, have reached epidemic levels," Rosenberg said.
The DEA report also found that heroin and prescription pain killers are among the top drug threats in the US.
Heroin use in the United States has skyrocketed in recent years and there was 51 percent increase in users between 2013 and 2014.
Rosenberg also expressed opposition to the marijuana legalization movement in the US and efforts to legalize the drug based on highlighting its medicinal properties. "What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also medicinal, because it's not," he said.
According to new findings by researchers, middle-aged white people in the United States have suffered a startling rise in death rates since 1999, most likely because of problems with legal and illegal drugs, alcohol and suicide.
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