Report From US Surgeon General Highlights Scope Of Addiction Crisis

The Washington Post (11/17, Bernstein) says that on Thursday, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy unveiled a landmark report which “places drug and alcohol addiction alongside smoking, AIDS and other public health crises of the past half-century, calling the current epidemic ‘a moral test for America.’”

USA Today (11/17, Hafner) says the report, called “Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health,” found that “one in seven Americans,” or nearly 21 million people, will face substance addiction, but only about “10% of those now addicted receive treatment.” Data also show one person “dies every 19 minutes from opioid or heroin overdose alone.”

On its website, ABC News (11/17, Mohney) says that at present, “the number of people with a substance use disorder exceeds the number of people diagnosed with cancer – any kind of cancer, according to the report.” In addition, while data show “32,744 people died from car accidents in 2014, the report found that approximately 50,000 people died from either an opioid, alcohol or other drug overdose that year.”

Related Links:

— “Landmark report by Surgeon General calls drug crisis ‘a moral test for America’,”Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post, November 17, 2016.

Posted in In The News.