overdose
2021 saw record fatal ODs, gun deaths, car crashes in Ohio over 15 years, data shows
Last year saw the highest numbers of fatal overdoses, gun deaths, homicides, and motor vehicle fatalities among Ohioans over the last 15 years, according to data from the state health department. It was also the third-worst year on record for suicide deaths of Ohioans, just off the high mark set in 2018. Taken together, the […]
CDC: Ohio’s opioid epidemic cost $72 billion in 2017
Ohio’s opioid epidemic caused an economic loss of more than $72 billion in 2017, the second most per capita of any other state in the U.S., according to CDC research. The figure, published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, is a sum of direct costs (health care, substance use disorder treatment, criminal justice […]
Municipalities should embrace their waste
A couple of years ago, I was at a conference at Ohio State’s Moritz School of Law on harm reduction strategies for the opioid crisis. One of the speakers was Dr. Dan Rosenblum, a health economist from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who specializes in both development economics and illicit drug markets. At this conference […]
Addiction kills thousands of Ohioans per year. COVID-19 is making things worse
As the new coronavirus began its march across the United States, Chief Tom Synan knew a “hurricane” was coming. The opioid epidemic was already killing hundreds of Ohioans every month. COVID-19, the isolation it spurred as Americans quarantined at home, and the economic devastation the disease would cause, was sure to worsen the addiction crisis. […]