Drug overdose deaths hit ‘alarming’ record high in US, according to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

In 2014 there were 47,055 deaths from drug overdose, up seven per cent from the previous year

Drugs (PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images)

Deaths from drug overdoses have hit an alarming record high in the US, according to research.

New figures released by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows there were 47,055 deaths from drug overdose across the country in 2014.

The number represented a seven-per-cent increase on the previous year and is the highest level since 1970.

Opioids, which are primarily prescription pain relief drugs and heroine, counted for 28,647 deaths in 2014, according to the report.

The count includes deaths involving powerful painkillers, sedatives, heroin, cocaine and other legal and illicit drugs.

The report said more people die a year from drug related overdoses in the US than they do from road traffic accidents, where fewer than 33,000 of crashes end in fatalities.

Since 2000, the rate of deaths from drug overdoses in both males and females has increased by 137 per cent and deaths from opioids have increased by 300 per cent from the same year.

“These findings indicate that the opioid overdose epidemic is worsening”, said the lead researcher Rose Budd in the report.

CDC Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, said: “The opioid epidemic is devastating American families and communities. To curb these trends and save lives, we must help prevent addiction and provide support and treatment to those who suffer from opioid use discords.”

In 2014, the five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Ohio.

West Virginina’s overdose rate was 35.5 per cent per 100,000, while the national average was about 15 per cent per 100,000.

The CDC has issued new guidelines to make it harder to access opioids, which suggest trying every other option to managing pain before prescribing opioids such as fentanyl oxoycontin, but this would not apply to terminally ill patients.

The report says: “There is a need for continued action to prevent opioid abuse, dependence, and death, improve treatment capacity for opioid use disorders, and reduce the supply of illicit opioids, particularly heroin and illicit fentanyl.”