Facts About Addiction

Whether it’s a problem with alcohol, Opioids, Cocaine, or any other substance, addiction kills thousands of Americans every year and impacts millions of lives. Addiction, or substance use disorder (SUD), is a chronic mental health condition.

Because it affects the brain’s normal functions, an SUD compels someone to repeatedly use substances or engage in behaviors even though they have harmful consequences. Addictions can destroy marriages, friendships, and careers and threaten a person’s basic health and safety.

• Almost 21 million Americans have at least 1 addiction, yet only 10% of them receive treatment.
• Drug overdose deaths have more than tripled since 1990.
• Alcohol and drug addiction cost the US economy over $600 billion every year.
• About 20% of Americans who have depression or an anxiety disorder also have a substance use disorder.
• More than 90% of people who have an addiction started to drink alcohol or use drugs before they were 18 years old.
• Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 are most likely to use addictive drugs.

Alcohol is the most widely-abused substance in the US, yet alcoholism is often left untreated. An addiction to alcohol can be detrimental to a person’s physical, mental, and social wellbeing.

• Every year, worldwide, alcohol is the cause of 5.3% of deaths (or 1 in every 20).
• About 300 million people throughout the world have an alcohol use disorder.
• On average, 30 Americans die every day in an alcohol-related car accident, and 6 Americans die every day from alcohol poisoning.
• About 88,000 people die as a result of alcohol every year in the United States.
• About 6% of American adults (about 15 million people) have an alcohol use disorder; only about 7% of those people ever get treatment.
• Men between the ages of 18 and 25 are most likely to binge drink and become alcoholics.

Opioids are a class of drugs which block sensations of pain and cause euphoria. They are dangerous because they pose very high risks for addiction and overdose. Opioids are an ingredient in many pain-relieving medications. Since they are controlled substances, drug traffickers also sell them illegally. Opioids, both illegal and prescribed, have caused a surge of deaths in the US in the past 2 decades.

• About 130 Americans die every day from an Opioid overdose.
• Since 1999, the sale of Opioid Painkillers has skyrocketed by 300%.
• About 20% to 30% of people who take prescription Opioids misuse them.
• About 10% of people who misuse prescription Opioids become addicted to Opioids.
• Approximately 2.1 million Americans have an Opioid use disorder.
• About 5% of people with an Opioid use disorder will try Heroin.

Heroin is a powerful and addictive Opioid. It is an illegal drug which poses serious risks for overdose. Heroin, especially Heroin mixed with Fentanyl (a very powerful Synthetic Opioid), has been a major contributor to the Opioid epidemic in the United States.

• Roughly 0.3% of American adults are Heroin users.
• There are over 100,000 new Heroin users each year.
• More than 28% of 2019’s Opioid overdose fatalities were linked to Heroin.
• Due to use patterns and Narcan, the rate of Heroin-linked overdose deaths fell 6% from 2018 to 2019.
• There were 14,019 Heroin-linked deaths by overdose in 2019.
  
• Though deaths have dipped recently, they still almost quintupled from 2010 to 2019.