Drug Related Death Statistics

 

 

* (Drug Related Death Statistics: 2000) "Illicit drug use is associated with suicide, homicide, motor-vehicle injury, HIV infection, pneumonia, violence, mental illness, and hepatitis. An estimated 3 million individuals in the United States have serious drug problems. Several studies have reported an undercount of the number of deaths attributed to drugs by vital statistics. However, improved medical treatments have reduced mortality from many diseases associated with illicit drug use. In keeping with the report by McGinnis and Foege, we included deaths caused indirectly by illicit drug use in this category. We used attributable fractions to compute the number of deaths due to illicit drug use. Overall, we estimate that illicit drug use resulted in approximately 17,000 deaths in 2000, a reduction of 3000 deaths from the 1990 report."

Source: Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association, (March 10, 2004), G225 Vol. 291, No. 10, 1242.

* (Drug Related Death Statistics: 2006): "In 2006, a total of 22,073 persons died of alcohol-induced causes in the United States. This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of alcohol, but also accidental poisoning by alcohol. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use as well as deaths due to fetal alcohol syndrome."

Source: Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, p, 11.

* (Drug Related Death Statistics: 2006): "In 2006, a total of 38,396 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United. This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of legal or illegal drugs, but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother’s drug use."

Source: Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, p, 11.

* (Drug Related Death Statistics: 2009) "More than 60 per cent of drug treatment demand in Asia and Europe relate to opiates that are, especially heroin, the most deadly drugs. Deaths due to overdose are, in any single year, as high as 5,000-8,000 in Europe, and several times this amount in the Russian Federation alone."

Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium" (Vienna, Austria: October 2009, p. 7.

 

 

Drug Related Death Statistics: Annual Causes of Death in the United States

 

 

Tobacco

435,000

 

 

Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity

 

 

365,000

 

 

Alcohol

 

 

85,000

 

 

Microbial Agents

 

 

75,000

 

 

Toxic Agents

 

 

55,000

 

 

Motor Vehicle Crashes

 

 

26,347

 

 

Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs

 

 

32,000

 

 

Suicide

 

 

30,622

 

 

Incidents Involving Firearms

 

 

29,000

 

 

Homicide

 

 

20,308

 

 

Sexual Behaviors

 

 

20,000

 

 

All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect

 

 

17,000

 

 

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin

 

 

7,600

 

 

Marijuana

 

 

0