Substance abuse hurts US productivity -- it may be worse than ever !

I'm not 

talking about 

legal and illegal

marijuana use,

which tends to 

demotivate people.

I'm talking about 

life threatening

substance abuse.

Opioid overdoses 

finally may have 

leveled off in 2019.

Possibly due to naloxone

( nasal spray form: NARCAN )

that so many policemen

now carry -- an amazing

life saving antidote 

for overdoses that 

I've seen work on 

the live TV show 

"LIVE PD".

This was going to be

a good news article

about opiod deaths.

Don't start cheering yet.

My research turned up

bad news that seems 

to have slipped under 

the mainstream media

"radar".

The number 
of Americans 

drinking 
themselves 
to death 

has more 
than doubled 

over the last 
two decades, 

far outpacing 
the rate of 
population growth.

Researchers from the

National Institute on 

Alcohol Abuse and 

Alcoholism studied 

the cause of death

for Americans 

aged 16 and up 

between 1999 

and 2017. 

They determined 

35,914 deaths 

tied to alcohol 

in 1999,

which doubled 

to 72,558 

in 2017. 

The rate 

of alcohol 

deaths 

per 100,000 people

soared by +50.9% 

from 16.9 to 25.5.

Over that 

20-year period, 

the study 

determined 

that alcohol 

was involved 

in more than 

one million 

deaths. 

Half from liver disease, 

or a person drinking 

themselves to death, 

or a drug overdose 

that involved alcohol.

In 2017 alone, 2.6% of 

roughly 2.8 million 
deaths in the US 
were alcohol-related.

Nine states - Maine, Indiana, 

Idaho, Montana, New Jersey, 

New York, North Dakota, 

Ohio and Virginia -  saw a 

"significant" increase 

in adults who binge drink, 

a dangerous activity 

that can lead to deadly 

car crashes and other 

fatal accidents, 

according to 
the Centers for
Disease Control
        ( CDC ).

Americans 

who binge drink 

are consuming 

more drinks 

per person.

That number 

has spiked 

     from 

472 drinks 
per year

in 2011, 
     to

529 drinks
per year
in 2017, 

a +12% 
increase.

The largest 

increase 

in recent years 

in these types 

of deaths 

occurred 

among the

non-hispanic 

white women !

Substance abuse 

has been plaguing 

Americans, and 
American labor
productivity, for 

many decades. 

It was expected 

to decline as the 
U.S. popoulation

grew older.

I guess the 

"experts" 

were wrong

again.