Substance Use Disorder

• 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.

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.

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

Marijuana is a psychoactive drug which comes from a THC-bearing plant. It is becoming increasingly legal throughout the US, both for medicine and for recreation, but it’s still not completely safe because it may be addictive and cause health problems.

• About 30-40 million Americans smoke Marijuana every year.

• About 43% of American adults admit to trying Marijuana.

• About 30% of people who regularly use Marijuana have a Marijuana use disorder.

• The average batch of Marijuana in 1990 contained less than 4% THC, but that percentage has since risen to over 12%.

• Roughly 10% of all Marijuana users will become addicted to the drug.

• Around 17% of all who start using the drug as minors become addicted.

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.

Methamphetamine, which is commonly called Meth, is a controlled substance which has a high potential for abuse, overdose, and addiction. As an illegal drug, Meth is usually sold as “Crystal” (white rocks or fragments) to be burned and smoked. Meth is highly addictive and dangerous for a person’s health.

• About 774,000 Americans are regular Meth users. About 16,000 of them are between the ages of 12 and 17.

• The DEA obtained over 117,000 pounds of Meth in 2019.

• About 964,000 Americans are addicted to Meth.

• Meth tested by the DEA had an average of 97.2% purity in the first half of 2019.

• Just over 1% of 8th graders had tried Meth as of 2020.

• Meth overdose fatalities increased almost threefold from 2015 to 2019.