> The article says that the number of overdose deaths is 110,000 per year.
For comparison NHTSA recorded just under 43,000 car accident deaths in the US in 2021. That’s also very close to the 2020 death by suicide number of 45,000.
That’s 25% more opioid deaths per year than our both cars and suicides COMBINED.
In fact we could add in the 19,000 Americans who were killed with guns in homicides in 2020.
Cars + Gun Homicides + Suicides = 107,000. Still less than opioid deaths by a few thousand.
Keep in kind, some of the opioid deaths are effectively suicide. They might not be classified as such but rest assured plenty of those people reach their limit and take their own lives.
We’ve all heard for many years how horrible the opioid crisis is. I’ve probably heard that 110,000 number at some point. But without putting it in context of the big (non-medical) causes of death it’s hard to understand just how crazily big that number really is.
For comparison NHTSA recorded just under 43,000 car accident deaths in the US in 2021. That’s also very close to the 2020 death by suicide number of 45,000.
That’s 25% more opioid deaths per year than our both cars and suicides COMBINED.
In fact we could add in the 19,000 Americans who were killed with guns in homicides in 2020.
Cars + Gun Homicides + Suicides = 107,000. Still less than opioid deaths by a few thousand.
It’s bad out there.