On Wednesday, in New Haven, Connecticut, more than 70 people overdosed on a drug suspected to be K2, renewing concerns about the problem with drugs in America. President Donald Trump has labeled it an epidemic, and while it isn't confined to any one location, gender or race, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that West Virginia, Ohio, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Kentucky have the highest drug overdose-related death rates in 2016.
CDC calculated its findings based on the age-adjusted rate, which is used to compare risk within a certain population.
West Virginia had a total of 884 deaths from overdoses and a rate of 52 people per 100,000. The top three counties for drug overdose-related deaths, based on data from 2014 to 2016 compiled by the County Health Rankings, were Kanawha, 303 deaths, Cabell County, 226 deaths, and Berkeley County, 181 deaths.
A study published in 2018 identified that in Boone County, West Virginia, there was an increase of 8,369.7 percent in deaths due to drug overdoses, according to CNN.
Ohio had 4,329 deaths due to a drug overdose in 2016 and an age-adjusted rate of 39. Cuyahoga County was responsible for 1,154 deaths from 2014 to 2016, according to County Health Rankings, Hamilton County had 949 deaths and Franklin County had 881.
New Hampshire had 481 deaths at an age-adjusted rate of 39, the same as Ohio. The New Hampshire counties of Hillsborough, Rockingham and Strafford had the most deaths with 475, 268 and 139 respectively, according to County Health Ratings.
Pennsylvania's overdose-related deaths in 2016 were 4,627 with an age-adjusted rate of 37.9. Philadelphia was overwhelmingly the county with the highest number of deaths, according to County Health Ratings, and between 2014 and 2016 had 1,830 deaths.
Following Philadelphia was Allegheny County with 1,368 deaths and then Delaware County with 590 deaths.
The fifth state with the highest death rate with regards to drug overdoses in 2016 was Kentucky, which experienced 1,419 deaths at an age-adjusted rate of 33.5. From 2014 to 2016, Jefferson County had a total of 725 drug overdose-related deaths, according to County Healthy Ratings, and Fayette County was the next highest with 308 deaths. In third place was Kenton County with 275 deaths.
Connecticut, where at least 70 people overdosed on Wednesday, had an age-adjusted death rate for 2016 of 27.4 and 971 total deaths, according to the CDC. From 2014 to 2016, New Haven County, where Wednesday's overdoses occurred, had 621 drug overdose deaths, making it the second highest county in Connecticut.
In a recently released report, the CDC shared that the organization estimates that 71,658 people died in 2017 of a drug overdose, an increase of about 8,000 people.
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