You’d have to be willfully and intentionally ignoring the issue to miss it. Most, if not all, of us have some touch-points with addiction and the ravaging effects it has on the body and mind. Aside from the devastation it causes the individual user, it affects the lives of their loved ones, perhaps even you reading this right now, in a massive way on drug addiction in America.
As the perception of addiction slowly shifts from seeing drug abuse as exclusively criminal behavior to realizing that addiction is truly an illness, the stigma of getting treatment begins to soften.
Drug addiction in America is rampant. It’s an epidemic.
More than 6,000 people die each year from drug abuse in the US, and millions more are affected by addiction. Alcoholism or drug use disorder is a long-term mental illness.
The brain’s regular functioning is disrupted by drugs, resulting in a person’s compulsive need to consume drugs or participate in dangerous behaviours again and over again. Addictions may wreak havoc on a person’s relationships, career, and health.
In fiscal year 2019, the government’s drug control budget was $29.9 billion. At $34.6 billion in 2020, it increases even more in 2021. To put it another way, this data indicates that the government sees the situation as becoming worse.
In addition, the National Institute on Drug Consumption estimates that the yearly cost of tobacco, alcohol, and illegal drug abuse is $740 billion, which is a staggering sum. This includes money spent on crime, lost productivity at work, and health care costs, among other things.
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How Many Americans Are Addicted to Drugs?
To put it bluntly; it’s a lot. The scourge of drug addiction in America is widespread. A study by the National Institutes of Health estimates that about 10 percent of Americans have had a drug use disorder at some point in their life. That translates to more than 23 million people. Worse yet, the same study said only about 25% of those with substance abuse problems actually get treatment. In other words, 75% of our fellow citizens that struggle with this, never seek help.
That number might seem vague, the 23 million, the timeline perhaps a little unclear and lumping in drug abuse in the distant past to today to make it seem worse. Taking a specific year, 2017, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that approximately 19.7 million had a substance abuse disorder related to alcohol or illicit drug use within that year. Truly astounding.
To break it down by the most prominent and widely used drugs is instructive in painting a more detailed picture of our collective reality with respect to abuse.
How All American Detox Can Help?
Recovery from drug misuse is a lifelong process. It is a long-term endeavour. Establishing the proper foundation is essential to ensuring that your treatment is effective and long-lasting. Once you have made the decision to embark forward into a life of serenity, our Los Angeles drug detox center is the first step on that path.
Our comprehensive residential inpatient drug rehab allows you to live the journey from alcoholism to sobriety in a safe and pleasant atmosphere. Despite the fact that we provide many therapies, such as medication-assisted therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, dialectic behavioural therapy, and individual and group sessions.
Given our extensive expertise in treating drug misuse, we recognise that each client is unique, and as a result, we customise each recovery programme to meet your specific requirements, checking all the boxes that will eventually set you or your loved one up for success in the future.
Achieve freedom from addiction with All American Detox, get in touch with us today to learn more and see if addiction treatment in Los Angeles is the right next step for you.
Dedicated staff with expert knowledge & experience.
Clients attend our program at a time to maximize individual care.
Days of treatment are suggested for best results.
Illicit drug use is one thing and the problems that America faces with it are very real but when it comes to what people in the United States are most addicted to, there’s a substance that plainly outpaces the rest and it’s legal; alcohol. It’s one of our biggest issues in public health however it doesn’t seem to get the same attention, perhaps because of that normalizing.
A 2018 study by the NSDUH found that 86.3% of those aged 18 or older had drunk alcohol at some point in their life and 55.3% said they drank within the last month at the time of the study. This generally just points to the high levels of normalization that we have with drinking.
Problem drinking and alcohol use disorder is a different story.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism notes that 26.45% of adults engaged in binge drinking (5 or more drinks within a couple of hours of each other) within the month of the study.
14.4 million adults struggle with alcohol use disorder and only about 8% of those who seek treatment.
Recalling from above, the economic impact of substance abuse in America stood at $740 billion, alcohol abuse makes up $249 billion of that based on numbers from 2010.
Deaths from alcoholic liver disease stood at 22,246 in 2017 and more broadly speaking about 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes every year. Put differently, alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of death in America. Addiction in America is fueled by the fact that drinking is so prevalent in our culture.
Alcohol abuse is a problem right in front of all our faces and it grabs us when young. 401,000 youth aged 12-17 had alcohol use disorder in 2018. People aged 12 to 20 consumed 11% of all alcohol in the U.S. and 4.3 million binges drank at least once a month.
The Woodland Hills and Los Angeles All American Detox Centers provide drug and alcohol detoxification and addiction treatment. We deal with the majority of the main insurance companies and are here to assist anybody in the United States who is suffering from drug dependency. Now is the time for you to dial our number or request a call back.
Without treatment, death is a painful reality that users and their friends and families may eventually face when dealing with drug abuse.
The above breakdown shows that deaths from all these substances happen with troubling regularity and the deeper someone falls into the pit of addiction the more likely that outcome becomes.
Sadly, as has been widely covered in the news of late, deaths from drug use have skyrocketed in recent years. From 1999 to 2018 overdose deaths from all illicit or prescription opioids rose from around 20,000 to over 67,000.
Provisional counts made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2019 are over 69,000 deaths.
With nearly 20 million Americans contending with a substance abuse disorder of some kind, it’s no wonder the rates of death continue to trend up.
A History of Substance Abuse Rates: Then & Now
The National Center for Biotechnology Information makes an interesting observation that most of the modern problems, as well as the benefits, resulting from drug use are the outcome of scientific and technological progress. An interesting idea to consider.
That thought encapsulates and puts into perspective the recency of some of what we’re dealing with. Alcohol and marijuana have been around for ages but as we pushed the boundaries of science, new compounds were created. In many ways that was miraculous, offering relief to a great many people.
However, like with the ongoing opioid epidemic, use has grown into misuse and ultimately abuse. The prescription drugs that were created have been wildly overprescribed, putting too large of supply in the hands of people that may not have needed it in the first place. Drugs whose effects are so dramatic are easier to get hooked on as the high is something that we naturally chase. Truly a double-edged sword.
Moreover, drugs have gotten more accessible, the rate of death mentioned above points to that.
In the United States, from the 1960s onwards funding increased significantly to research drug abuse. While substance abuse in America has always been with us in some form or another, the ways in which we study it have gotten vastly more sophisticated which in turn allows us to be able to better react.
How to Tackle Drug Addiction in America
Identifying and admitting the problem is critical to making progress toward solving it. We won’t be able to repair it if we don’t speak about it. Addiction and the drug addiction facts that it is a long-term illness will make it easier for us to look at ideas for what to do next.
Recovering from addiction is a very tough journey to take on your own, and there are several dangers to be aware of. Given that many people’s descents into drug or alcohol misuse are affected by the actions of others, one would expect that climbing out of a hole would be easier with the assistance of others.
That means that the best way for addicts and those who care about them to get better is to get help from experts.
There are various drug rehab center around the nation where anybody can get the treatment they need in order to achieve sobriety. Don’t wait to get help if you or a loved one is struggling with addiction. Call a treatment facility right now.
