Drug abuse, specifically prescription drug abuse, in the United States is a huge problem. Consider the following facts taken from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and World Health Organization (WHO):
- In 2023, DEA seized more than 79.5 million fentanyl-laced fake pills and nearly 12,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. (DEA)
- Among people aged 12 or older in 2022, 3.2% (or 8.9 million people) misused opioids (heroin or prescription pain relievers) in the past year. Among the 8.9 million people who misused opioids in the past year, 8.5 million people misused prescription pain relievers compared with 1.0 million people who used heroin. (SAMHSA)
- In the U.S., the number of people dying from drug overdose amounted to 70,630 in 2019, and approximately half of these deaths involved synthetic opioids. (WHO)
- From 2013 to 2019, the age-adjusted synthetic opioid death rates in the United States increased by 1040%. (WHO)
Quest Diagnostics published a report in 2016 concerning prescription drugs found in urine. The study looked at tens of thousands of drug tests and found that 54% of all samples tested were not consistent with the physician’s documented prescriptions. In other words, more than half of urine drug screen samples were missing something that should be present or had something present that was not prescribed.
