March 28, 2024
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WalletHub Study: Maryland ranks #18 for US drug problems

With the White House sending mixed messages about how it plans to deal with drug abuse, establishing a commission to study the Opioid epidemic yet proposing to cut the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s budget by 95%, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released a study on the States with the Biggest Drug Problems in 2017 to highlight the areas that stand to be most affected.

This study compares the 50 states and the District in terms of 15 key metrics, ranging from arrest and overdose rates to Opioid prescriptions and meth-lab incidents per capita. You can find some highlights below.

States with the Biggest Drug Problems

1  District of Columbia                   11 New Hampshire
2  Vermont                                12 West Virginia
3  Colorado                               13 New York
4  Delaware                               14 Indiana
5  Rhode Island                           15 Louisiana
6  Oregon                                 16 Missouri
7  Connecticut                            17 Maine
8  Arizona                                18 Maryland
9  Massachusetts                          19 Washington
10 Michigan                               20 North Carolina

Key Stats:
Alabama has 142.9 opioid pain reliever prescriptions for every 100 residents, leading the nation. On the other end of the spectrum, there are 52.0 opioid prescriptions for every 100 Hawaiians.

West Virginia has 42 drug overdose deaths for every 100,000 residents. That is six times more than Nebraska, which has the fewest overdose deaths, at 7 per 100,000 residents.

Colorado has the highest percentage of teens who used illicit drugs in the past month, at 14.58 percent. That is 2.5 times higher than in Iowa, which has the lowest rate (6.31 percent).

New Jersey has the highest percentage of teens who have been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on school property, at 30.70 percent. That is 2.6 times higher than in Iowa (11.90 percent), the state with the lowest rate.

Colorado has the highest percentage of adults who used illicit drugs in the past month, at 17.06 percent, topping South Dakota’s low (5.76 percent) by 2.8 times.

At 16.50 percent, the percentage of New Mexico teens who  tried marijuana before age 13 is 4.3 times higher than in Utah (3.70 percent), where teens are least likely to do so.

Nearly 9 out of every 1,000 South Dakotans have been arrested for a drug violation, which is the country’s highest rate. Vermont, at the low end, has just over 1 drug arrest per 1,000 residents.

The District of Columbia has the highest percentage of adults who needed but didn’t receive treatment for illicit drug use in the past year, at 3.21 percent. That is 1.5 times higher than in Wyoming (1.83 percent), which has the lowest rate.

To view the full report and learn about drug abuse in your state, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/drug-use-by-state/35150/

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