In 2021, 16.5 percent of people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed from around 40,000 in 2011 to more than 106,000 in 2021, reported the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Deaths from drug poisoning involving cocaine have increased every year since 2013.
Here are the following effects of a heroin overdose: slow and shallow breathing, blue lips and fingernails, clammy skin, convulsions, coma, and possible death.
Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.
DEA lab testing reveals that six out of every ten fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.
As of 2020, 42 percent of young adults used marijuana once or more in the previous 12 months, according to the 2020 Monitoring the Future Study Vol. 2.
While several states have legalized marijuana, the drug is still linked to mental health problems like anxiety and psychosis, can slow brain development, and is the substance most often found in the blood of drivers involved in and frequently responsible for car crashes.
National overdose deaths involving heroin have dropped from around 15,500 in 2017 to 9,173 in 2021. But national overdose deaths involving stimulants have soared from around 5,000 in 2010 to 53,495 in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Use of stimulants in conjunction with fentanyl is responsible for much of the increase.
Adolescent alcohol use significantly increased between 2021 and 2022, reaching pre-pandemic levels. Conversely, levels of cannabis use and nicotine vaping went down after the onset of the pandemic, remaining relatively low into 2022, according to the 2022 Monitoring the Future Study Vol. 1.