3cp Drug
Aila Gilb
This webpage is regularly updated to display the most recent final drug overdose death data published annually by NCHS. NCHS systems receive and analyze data from death certificates, including cause-of-death information reported by state and local medical examiners and coroners. Because drug overdose deaths often require lengthy investigations, data are updated as new information is received.
Related Resources NHTSA Public Meetings - Dialogue on Drug-Impaired Driving Drug-Impaired Listening Sessions Many substances can impair driving, including alcohol, some over-the-counter and prescription drugs, and illegal drugs.
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) is the leading organization in the U.S. working to end the drug war. We are people impacted by the drug war. We have lost loved ones to overdose. We are in recovery. We use drugs. We have experienced the harms of drug criminalization. Join us. Together, we will end the drug war and build a better future shaped by love, not war.
Communities need resources to thrive. The U.S. government spends billions each year enforcing drug war prohibition. This money can be better spent supporting communities. This includes addressing the root causes of problematic drug use. The Drug Policy Alliance believes we must reinvest funds back into the communities most harmed by the drug war.
Communities need a health-focused approach to drugs. Yet, drug offenses are one of the leading causes of arrest in the U.S. The U.S. must stop arresting and jailing people for drugs. Instead, they should reinvest the savings into addiction services and social supports. This includes voluntary treatment, housing, employment, harm reduction, recovery services, and peer support. The Drug Policy Alliance is the leading organization advocating for drug decriminalization.
People need support, not punishment. The decision to punish drug use has affected nearly every aspect of daily life. The drug war has now spread beyond the criminal system into education, employment, housing, and more. The Drug Policy Alliance is working to end the punishment and surveillance that harm families and communities.
People have a right to know what goes in their bodies. Prohibition has created an unregulated drug supply that is unpredictable. It is driving overdose deaths. The Drug Policy Alliance is exploring legal regulation and safer supply as a legal, known alternative to the unregulated drug supply. It will replace prohibition with equity-centered policies and practices.
No one should be criminalized for marijuana use or supply. As reform efforts expand across the United States, it is important that we legalize and regulate marijuana right. The Drug Policy Alliance is leading the fight to ensure marijuana reform centers health, justice, equity, and reinvestment. This includes calling on the Biden administration to deschedule and decriminalize marijuana.
No one should die from a preventable overdose. Overdose prevention centers (OPCs) save lives. They are a much-needed response to the unprecedented numbers of Americans dying from an overdose. OPCs reduce overdose death and connect people to ongoing care. The Drug Policy Alliance is the leading voice for making OPCs available across the United States.
Most people agree that drug use should be treated as a health issue instead of a crime. Yet many still support harsh punishment for people who sell drugs because of stigma and fear. The Drug Policy Alliance is advocating for new responses to drug sales that improve public health and safety while reducing punishment.
This data visualization presents provisional counts for drug overdose deaths based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. Counts for the most recent final annual data are provided for comparison. National provisional counts include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia as of the date specified and may not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period. Provisional counts are often incomplete and causes of death may be pending investigation (see Technical notes) resulting in an underestimate relative to final counts. To address this, methods were developed to adjust provisional counts for reporting delays by generating a set of predicted provisional counts (see Technical notes).
The provisional data presented in this visualization include: (a) the reported and predicted provisional counts of deaths due to drug overdose occurring nationally and in each jurisdiction; (b) a U.S. map of the percentage changes in provisional drug overdose deaths for the current 12 month-ending period compared with the 12-month period ending in the same month of the previous year, by jurisdiction; and (c) the reported and predicted provisional counts of drug overdose deaths involving specific drugs or drug classes occurring nationally and in selected jurisdictions. The reported and predicted provisional counts represent the numbers of deaths due to drug overdose occurring in the 12-month periods ending in the month indicated. These counts include all seasons of the year and are insensitive to variations by seasonality. Deaths are reported by the jurisdiction in which the death occurred.
Several data quality metrics, including the percent completeness in overall death reporting, percentage of deaths with cause of death pending further investigation, and the percentage of drug overdose deaths with specific drugs or drug classes reported are included to aid in interpretation of provisional data as these measures are related to the accuracy of provisional counts (see Technical notes). Reporting of the specific drugs and drug classes involved in drug overdose deaths varies by jurisdiction, and comparisons of death rates involving specific drugs across selected jurisdictions should not be made (see Technical notes). Provisional data presented in this visualization will be updated on a monthly basis as additional records are received.
Provisional drug overdose death counts are based on death records received and processed by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) as of a specified cutoff date. The cutoff date is generally the first Sunday of each month. National provisional estimates include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia. NCHS receives the death records from state vital registration offices through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program.
The timeliness of provisional mortality surveillance data in the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) database varies by cause of death. The lag time (i.e., the time between when the death occurred and when the data are available for analysis) is longer for drug overdose deaths compared with other causes of death (1). Thus, provisional estimates of drug overdose deaths have traditionally been reported 6 months after the date of death. Given recent improvements in data timeliness, starting in February 2022, the 6-month lag was shortened to 4 months.
The reporting lag was shorted from 6 months to 4 months after years of monitoring the improving timeliness of death reporting and a recent comparison of predicted estimates calculated using the 4-month and 6-month lags. Estimates produced with the 6-month and 4-month lags had a difference of less than 0.2% for national predicted drug overdose death counts. State predicted drug overdose death counts differed by an average of 0.1% (ranging from 0.0 to 0.5%). National predicted counts for deaths involving opioids had a difference of 0.1%, while state predicted counts had an average difference of 0.3% (ranging from 0.3 to 2.9%).
Provisional data are based on available records that meet certain data quality criteria at the time of analysis and may not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period. Therefore, they should not be considered comparable with final data and are subject to change.
Mortality statistics are compiled in accordance with World Health Organization (WHO) regulations specifying that WHO member nations classify and code causes of death with the current revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD). ICD provides the basic guidance used in virtually all countries to code and classify causes of death. It provides not only disease, injury, and poisoning categories but also the rules used to select the single underlying cause of death for tabulation from the several diagnoses that may be reported on a single death certificate, as well as definitions, tabulation lists, the format of the death certificate, and regulations on use of the classification. Causes of death for data presented in this report were coded according to ICD guidelines described in annual issues of Part 2a of the NCHS Instruction Manual (3).
Drug overdose deaths may involve multiple drugs; therefore, a single death might be included in more than one category when describing the number of drug overdose deaths involving specific drugs. For example, a death that involved both heroin and fentanyl would be included in both the number of drug overdose deaths involving heroin and the number of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone.
The percentage of death records in which a specific drug or drug class is identified as involved in a drug overdose death varies by jurisdiction (7). Selected jurisdictions consistently had 90% or more of drug overdose death certificates mentioning at least one specific drug for all of the 12-month ending periods included in the dashboard. Provisional counts of drug overdose deaths where a specific drug or drug class is reported on the death certificate are presented for the United States and for jurisdictions meeting this threshold. Additionally, as a data quality metric, the percentage of drug overdose death records where at least one drug or drug class is recorded is presented.
As the timeliness and data quality of the drug overdose mortality data improve, the list of included jurisdictions will be re-examined to determine whether additional jurisdictions should be included or excluded based on the criteria described above. Due to reporting variations by jurisdiction, comparisons across selected jurisdictions should not be made. Data quality measures are shown for all jurisdictions in the below table. Values are updated with each monthly release and reflect the most current data available.
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