1: Compared with our ancestors, we are significantly less likely to die by homicide, automobile accident, plane crash, a fall, or in a fire.
So far this week, we’ve examined multiple areas with much to celebrate.
There is, however, one area of accidental death where the news is not good: Poison (solid or liquid).
Because this category includes drug overdoses.
2: 98 percent of the “poison” deaths are from drugs (92 percent) or alcohol (6 percent), Steven Pinker writes in Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress.
This “single rising curve” does not serve as a “counterexample to humanity’s progress in reducing environmental hazards,” Steven notes. It is, however, “a step backward with respect to a different kind of hazard, drug abuse.”
Here the trend is not good.
“The curve begins to rise in the psychedelic 1960s, jerks up again during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s, and blasts off during the far graver epidemic of opioid addiction in the 21st century,” Steven notes.
“Starting in the 1990s, doctors overprescribed synthetic opioid painkillers like oxycodone, hydrocodone, and fentanyl, which are not just addictive but gateway drugs to heroin,” he writes.
“Overdoses of both the legal and illegal opioids have become a major menace,” Steven notes.
3: Today, “poison” is the largest category of accidental deaths in the U.S., exceeding even traffic accidents.
The number of deaths in the United States due to drug overdoses has increased from 11,155 in 1999 to 98,268 in 2021.
Steven notes: “Politicians and public health officials are coming to grips with the enormity of the problem, and countermeasures are being implemented.”
The current strategies include: “Monitoring prescriptions, encouraging the use of safer analgesics, shaming or punishing pharma companies that recklessly promote the drugs, making the antidote naloxone more available, and treating addicts with opiate antagonists and cognitive behavior therapy,” he notes.
These approaches are having limited success, however, as the number of accidental deaths due to drug overdoses continues to rise at a frightening clip, from 65,773 in 2019 to 83,558 in 2020 to 98,268 in 2021.
Much more must be done.
More tomorrow.
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Reflection: Was I aware of the enormity of the crisis regarding death by drug overdose? What can be done? What must be done?
Action: Discuss with a colleague or friend.
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