Opioid Abuse Epidemic: How New York Compares To The Country

A raging opioid epidemic is sweeping the nation, leaving a sea of victims struggling with the insidious tentacles of addiction — and it's a scourge that's showing no signs of slowing down.

In 2015, New York's number of opioid overdose deaths was the fifth highest in the country, according to new national data that depicts an ongoing battle that claims victims across all socioeconomic and demographic lines.

National numbers recently released by the Centers for Disease Control give a picture of how New York State compares to other states struggling against the same deadly epidemic.

The new numbers look at 2015, the most recent year for which full data is available.

According to the CDC, opioids — both prescription and illegal — were involved in 33,091 deaths in 2015, and opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999.

In New York, the number of drug overdose deaths in 2015 was 2,754, according to the CDC.

The CDC also reported that the statistically significant drug overdose death rate increase in New York indicated a 20.4 percent increase in 2015, compared to 2014.

Still, it was not the highest.

In 2015, the five states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose were West Virginia (41.5 per 100,000), New Hampshire (34.3 per 100,000), Kentucky (29.9 per 100,000), Ohio (29.9 per 100,000) and Rhode Island (28.2 per 100,000).

In New York, in 2015, that rate was 13.6 per 100,000 people, according to the CDC.

New York was among the states with the most significant increases from 2014 to 2015. Those states were largely in the Northeast and South, according to the CDC.

Other states with statistically significant increases in drug overdose death rates from 2014 to 2015 included Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia.

Communities in New York including Long Island have struggled with the raging crisis.

In June, 2016, a report found that overdoses related to heroin and opioids rose faster in New York State than in other areas in 2014.

Most recently, statistics indicated that fentanyl has outpaced heroin as the deadliest drug on Long Island. And in 2015, Suffolk County made headlines as the leader in New York in heroin overdose deaths.

To that end, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has embraced new weapons in the ongoing war against addiction, even creating a new statewide heroin task force in May, 2016.

Images courtesy of CDC.