Connecticut Has A Serious Drug Problem: Report

According to WalletHub.com's new report Drug Use by State: 2017's Problems Areas, Connecticut needs an intervention.

Connecticut is the seventh worst state overall as it pertains to drug use, a top 10 ranking that no state would want to be a part of.

"Across the state, the number of overdoses has increased in recent years," Greenwich Police Lt. David Nemecek told Patch. "People get sucked into the drug culture, and they can't get out."

Connecticut leads the nation with the Most People Receiving Substance Abuse Treatment per 100,000 Drug Users, according to WalletHub. Part of what's driving that distinction is the state's heroin epidemic.

"We need the assistance of the community to fight this, because every town is dealing with it," said Nemecek.

Washington DC has the worst drug problem in the nation, WalletHub writes, followed by Vermont, Colorado, Delaware, Rhode Island and sixth-place Oregon.

To come up with the ranking, WalletHub studied three overall categories: Drug Use & Addiction; Law Enforcement; and Drug Health Issues & Rehab. To view the website's methodology, click here.

"The number of people who admit to ever using an illicit drug actually rose from 1979 (31.3%) to 2015 (48.8%), according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse," wrote author John S. Kiernan. "Annual overdose deaths have more than tripled from 2000 (17,415) to 2015 (52,404). And over 11 times more people were in prisons and jails for drug offenses in 2015 (469,545) than in 1980 (40,900), according to The Sentencing Project."

While the nation as a whole is grappling with drug abuse issues, several states are doing a better job of combating it than others. Idaho is the nation's least drug-addled state, followed by Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

To view WalletHub's complete Drug Use by State: 2017's Problem Areas, click here.

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