Drug abuse has a long and storied history in the United States, and we’ve been “at war” with it since 1971 under the Nixon administration. But no matter who is in office, the federal drug budget continues to increase. It’s moved from $23.8 billion in 2013 to over $27.7 billion in 2018.
With the federal government Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Prevention Week taking place May 12-18, personal-finance website WalletHub has just released a report on the States with the Biggest Drug Problems in 2019.
The report is available at https://wallethub.com/edu/drug-use-by-state/35150/
In order to determine which states have the biggest drug problems, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in three overall categories: 1) Drug Use and Addiction, 2) Law Enforcement and 3) Drug Health Issues and Rehab.
Those categories include a total of 22 relevant metrics ranging from arrest and overdose rates to opioid prescriptions and employee drug testing laws; each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the biggest drug problem.
Michigan’s overall score was 58.59 on the weighted scale derived from the categories, though its ranking in Drug Use and Addiction was third, in Law Enforcement seventh, and in Drug Health Issues and Rehab fourteenth.
The “state” with the worst drug problem was actually the District of Columbia, with a score of 59.95. D.C. ranks first in Drug Use and Addiction categories according to WalletHub.
Following Michigan in rankings from 3 to 10 respective were: Missouri, West Virginia, Indiana, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Colorado, and New Mexico.
The five states with the fewest drug problems were North Dakota (47th worst), Kansas, Idaho, Hawaii and finally, Minnesota in 51st place.
The website listed above also features the responses of a panel of six experts to five questions: What are the most effective measures state and local authorities can take to combat the opioid epidemic? Why do American doctors over-prescribe pain medication? To what degree is this responsible for the current epidemic? What should family or friends do if they suspect someone has a drug problem? Do you think Naloxone – the drug used to counteract overdoses – should be readily available to anyone who requests it? Should the federal government require all rehab facilities to accept Medicaid as a form of payment? What other steps should Federal officials take to improve access totreatment?
WalletHub is a credit service with the mission, “[D]edicated to helping people efficiently attain top WalletFitness™ so they may enjoy life instead of worrying about money. To that end, we strive to make the complex simple and to provide each user with a personalized level of care.” But in addition at wallethub.com/edu/statistics/ there are numerous reports on the best and worst states in a wide range of categories, from working moms to school systems to overall safety. Some of the lists also rank cities.
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