SAMHSA’s 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health also reports the following: 

• While young adults ages 18-25 have the highest rates of drug use across the board, drug use among adults ages 26-49 is on the rise
• Drug use—including, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, as well as prescription drug misuse and illicit opioids—among adults is on the rise
• The COVID-19 pandemic has increased drug use

Alcohol

• In 2020, 50.0% of people aged 12 or older (or 138.5 million people) used alcohol in the past month (i.e., current alcohol users) (2020 NSDUH)
• Approximately 14.5 million people aged 12 or older had an alcohol use disorder (2019 NSDUH)
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 29 people die daily in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. 

Opioids

• Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 3.4% (or 9.5 million people) misused opioids in the past year. Among the 9.5 million people who misused opioids in the past year, 9.3 million people misused prescription pain relievers and 902,000 people used heroin (2020 NSDUH)
• An estimated 1.6 million people aged 12 or older had an opioid use disorder based on 2019 NSDUH data
• According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Understanding the Epidemic, an average of 128 Americans die every day, from an opioid overdose (2017).  That’s about 48,000 people annually who died from opioid overdose, of which 28,466 people died from synthetic opioid overdose (heroin, fentanyl, and others).

Methamphetamine

• Meth use is on the rise and overdose death rates climbed more than five-fold for those ages 25 to 54 between 2011 and 2018
• In 2019, NSDUH data show that approximately 2 million people used methamphetamine in the past year. Approximately 1 million people had a methamphetamine use disorder, which was higher than the percentage in 2016
• The National Institute on Drug Abuse Data shows that overdose death rates involving methamphetamine have quadrupled from 2011 to 2017

Cocaine

• Cocaine use and death rates have risen; cocaine-involved overdose rates in the U.S. have risen annually since 2012.
• In 2019, NSDUH data show an estimated 5.5 million people aged 12 or older were past users of cocaine, including about 778,000 users of crack. The CDC reports that overdose deaths involving cocaine have increased by one-third from 2016 to 2017. 
• Severe medical complications of cocaine use include heart attacks, seizures, and abdominal pain.

Kratom

• In 2019, NSDUH data show that about 825,000 people had used Kratom in the past month. Kratom is a tropical plant that grows naturally in Southeast Asia with leaves that can have psychotropic effects by affecting opioid brain receptors. It is currently unregulated and has risk of abuse and dependence.
• The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that health effects of Kratom can include nausea, itching, seizures, and hallucinations.

Marijuana

• Approximately 4.8 million people aged 12 or older in 2019 had a marijuana use disorder in the past year (2019 NSDUH).

• The percentage of people who used marijuana in the past year was highest among young adults aged 18 to 25 (34.5%) compared with 16.3% of adults aged 26 or older and 10.1% of adolescents aged 12 to 17 (2020 NSDUH).

• The percentage of adults aged 26 and older using marijuana daily or almost daily has nearly doubled since 2015.

Tobacco

• In 2020, 20.7% of people aged 12 or older (or 57.3 million people) used nicotine products (i.e., used tobacco products or vaped nicotine) in the past month (2020 NSDUH).
• The CDC reports that cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States due to lung cancer, respiratory disorders, heart disease, stroke, and other serious illnesses. 

To learn more about how we can help you or your loved one recover from an addiction or mental health disorder, please contact us at newsom@dehdc.org, or request appointment.