With a rapidly rising Opiod epidemic and the White House poised to cut funding to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, personal finance website WalletHub thought it would be a good time to break-down which states have the biggest drug problems in 2017.
"Given the uncertain future and lack of significant progress to date, it’s fair to wonder where drug abuse is most pronounced and which areas are most at risk in the current political climate," the article says.
To gather its results, WalletHub analyzed 50 states and the District of Columbia using 15 metrics, ranging from arrest and overdose rates to opioid prescriptions and meth-lab incidents per capita.
Arizona ranked 8th with a total score of 49.35. To give some context as to what that number means, D.C. ranked 1st with a total score of 64.06 and Idaho ranked 51st with a total score of 28.52.
Arizona ranked in the top five of states for highest percentage of adults with unmet drug-treatment needs and highest percentage of teens who were offered, sold or given and illegal drug on school property.
Using a scale that ranks number one as "best" and 25 as "average," WalletHub broke down drug abuse and prevention in Arizona:
- 10th – Percentage of teenagers who used illicit drugs in the past month
- 13th – Percentage of adults who used illicit drugs in the past month
- 26th – Number of Opioid pain reliever prescriptions per capita
- 18th – Number of drug overdose deaths per capita
- 24th – Number of drug arrests per capita
- 4th – Percentage of adults who needed but didn’t receive treatment for illicit drug use in the past year
- 22nd – Number of substance abuse treatment facilities per 100,000 people (12 Years and Older) using illicit drugs
Read the full study here and check out some other notable statistics.
