The New York Times (3/5, Frakt, Subscription Publication) reports that opioid abuse is not the only “significant drug problem” in the US, because “among illicit drugs, cocaine is the No. 2 killer and claims the lives of more African-Americans than heroin does.” The story cites a recent study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine where “researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that drug-related deaths have grown across all racial groups and among both men and women.”
The analysis indicates” that between 1999 and 2015, overdose deaths of any kind of drug for Americans 20 to 64 years old increased 5.5 percent per year.” Among “non-Hispanic black Americans, cocaine has been a larger problem than heroin for nearly 20 years.”
Related Links:
— “Overshadowed by the Opioid Crisis: A Comeback by Cocaine,” Austin Frakt, New York Times, March 5, 2018.