Despite the passage of state and federal laws that were supposed to reduce fatal drug overdoses, the annual U.S. drug overdose death rate has quintupled over recent decades: Over the most current year of available data, more than 110,000 people in the U.S. died of drug overdoses, a rate of 33 per 100,000 population.
In order to measure these deaths in clear, relevant terms, Just Facts enlisted the expertise of a licensed actuary and a Ph.D. mathematician to calculate, double-check, and triple-check the average lifetime odds of dying of a drug overdose. The shocking result of these calculations is that 1 in 39 people will have their lives cut short by drug overdoses if the rate of such deaths stays at the current level. Those odds will become far worse if the rising trend continues.
