(The hill) — About one in three Americans say they know someone who has died from a drug overdose, a novel survey shows.
The survey, conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that 32 percent of respondents knew someone who had died from a drug overdose. Those who said they knew someone who had died from drug exploit were also more likely to support measures to curb addiction, according to the survey.
The results of the survey, published A paper published Friday in JAMA Network suggests that one path to major policy change in addiction control could be to mobilize those who have lost someone to drug addiction, the researchers wrote.
Experts also pointed out that opioids – which doctors often prescribe to treat pain – have led to a rise in overdose deaths in recent years, especially when combined with the proliferation of powerful synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and polysubstances.
Since 1999, more than a million people in the United States have died from drug overdoses. The causes of these overdoses are still being investigated, but researchers point out that little is known about the effects on the relatives and friends of the deceased.
The survey also found that personal losses from overdose were more common in lower-income groups, but there were no major differences between political parties.
Nearly 30 percent of Democrats said they had lost someone to an overdose, while 33 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of independents said so.
“This cross-sectional study found that 32% of U.S. adults reported knowing someone who died from a drug overdose, and that experiencing an overdose of their own was associated with a greater likelihood of endorsing addiction as an important policy issue,” the researchers wrote. “The results suggest that mobilizing this group may be a way to bring about major policy change.”
A similar study examined overdose deaths from 2011 to 2021 and estimates that more than 321,000 children in the United States have lost a parent to a drug overdose.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), US medicines Deaths from overdose decreased slightly in 2023, the first annual decline in overdose deaths since 2018. Nevertheless, the total number of deaths is extremely high: more than 107,000 people will die due to drug abuse in 2023.
