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by Aimee Adlam
When moving to a new State you may consider the quality of schools in the area, the price of property, the average wage and crime within that area, but have you ever considered substance abuse rates?
Legal and illegal drug abuse can fuel crime. Because of that, storage company Pink Storage analyzed the rates of substance abuse across the country by using data from the CDC, SAMHSA and the United States Census Bureau.
The study analyzed 12 key metrics related to both legal and illegal substances. These included fatal overdoses, the use of cocaine, heroin, opioids, marijuana, hallucinogens, and methamphetamine, as well as prescription drug abuse, alcohol binge drinking, alcohol-related deaths, and the percentage of adults who smoke or vape daily. After evaluating these factors, the study identified Vermont as one of the worst states for substance abuse.
Vermont ranked as the 8th worst state for fatal drug overdoses, with 45.9 deaths per 100,000 people. In comparison, West Virginia had the highest rate at 80.9 deaths per 100,000, while South Dakota had the lowest at just 11.3.
Vermont also had the 4th highest cocaine usage nationwide, surpassed only by Colorado, California, and Massachusetts.
Additionally, Vermont residents reported the highest marijuana usage, followed by Oregon and Massachusetts, and led the country in alcohol binge drinking.
Overall, Vermont ranked as the 4th worst state for substance abuse.
States with the highest levels of substance abuse
- Tennessee
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Arizona
- Minnesota
- Montana
- West Virginia
- Delaware
- Maine, New Mexico
States with the lowest levels of substance abuse
- Texas
- Georgia
- Florida
- North Carolina
- Utah
- Virginia
- Illinois
- New York, Alabama
- Nebraska
- Iowa
Scott Evans, owner of Pink Storage commented on the findings:
“The study shows that all areas of the United States suffer from some form of substance abuse, and if you or someone you know are suffering it’s important to reach out and get treatment.”
“Delaying treatment can put you at risk for fatal consequences and if no action is taken your addiction can become more severe. Substance use disorders won’t get better on their own and rehab offers a chance for recovery. Rehab can eliminate your physical dependence while addressing the psychological side of addiction.”
The charts, full report, and methodology can be found on the Pink Storage site.
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Categories: Drugs and Crime
There are two key factors contributing to substance (opiate) abuse. Lack of harsh sentences for trafficking/distribution, and hopelessness. Vermonters overwhelmingly return the same legislators to Montpelier every election cycle. Legislators that take a hands-off approach to ethnic drug crime and favor unskilled service jobs over industry. Where home ownership is only a dream. In a nutshell, voters have exactly what they bargained for. So WTF is the problem?
Is anyone paying attention to alcohol abuse, the only legally accepted substance commonly abused, and the TRUE gateway drug? We’ve got a sitting VP who is drunkenly spewing word salads and sad alcoholic attempts at communication… and we’re afraid to say anything.
How about all those liquid lunches with lobbyists under the Golden Dome? How about all the legislators who ARRIVE with alcohol on their breath in the morning? Don’t cast the stone too far… very FEW people don’t drink in this State. Most do…and ignore the consequences… I’d like to see which is the drunkest state in the union…we not top it out, but we sure are contenders…
IMHO: Substance abuse occurs for two reasons. First, the abuser is prescribed the drugs by a doctor, or otherwise gains access to the drugs for whatever reason… curious experimentation or social pressure.
Second, I don’t buy the ‘addictive personality’ excuse. But I do understand relativity. When someone is dissatisfied with their life, for whatever reason, when they are depressed and have no hope, or their curiosity for the future is blurred, when they feel incapable of having an effect on their lives, a drugged state of mind is an easy alternative in which to find themselves. The physical pain they initially felt may have long since been mitigated. But the mental anguish they feel from their sense of loss of control of their lives continues. Not only do they avoid personal responsibility, not only do they blame others for their predicament, they are encouraged by our monopolized public education system to be irresponsible and dependent.
Unless and until our one-size-fits-all education system is replaced with an autonomous, intrinsically motivated, merit-based system, this dystopia will continue. And, like the infamous ‘pusher-man’, the public-school monopoly will continue to earn its living by sustaining dysfunction and dependency.
Thanks, most of the rest of the country has acknowledged these problems and initiated a fix, beginning on January 20th. The moonbats who run Vermont and those who vote for them abhor a merit-based society are busy digging in their heels, because they know better.
What, only fourth? Take heart Vermont drug abusers! The Vermont Senate is looking into legalizing psilocybin mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs. Of course that was before the election.
Vermont is only rated #4, Progressives you are slipping we know you always want to be first in all the nonsense policies you promote. I assume the word that the newly proposed injection site for Illegal drugs hasn’t hit the streets yet………fools in charge.
Wake up people, we have fools in charge, they will entice more scourge to show up and be protected at these injection sites……………… pathetic display of leadership !!
Excellent observation, and yes, we have no leadership, we have real poor choices elected.
The writer of the info this article is based on is the Marketing Director a British self-storage company. The Pink Storage piece is written as click-bait to drive potential customers to their commercial site for profit–it’s not a reliable source for a journalism article. The research is shoddy. I don’t doubt that some of the information it’s looking at is accurate, but Evans doesn’t give enough information about the metrics his company used to arrive at his conclusion.
Look on the bright side. Residents are very well protected from any illegal pork pies being sold in the state. We are first in the nation with the least pork pie deaths. I wonder where we stand in fruitcake deaths?
Great response and so true. Fix crap that ain’t broke while the train derails
I’d like to know the data for responsible pain patients that were cut off due to the woke agenda and have to self medicate because Healthcare abandoned them.
Sad that seniors across the US are using heroin and/or committing suicide now. Cutting responsible patients off is only adding to the heroin epidemic. Feel good policy that doesn’t acknowledge the results.
What data are you looking for?
What is a ‘responsible pain patient’?
What is ‘Healthcare’? The insurance provider? Doctors? Big Pharma? All of the above?
What specific instances are there indicating which, if any, of the above players ‘abandoned’ anyone?
What is a ‘woke agenda’? What specific instances are there indicating that it was a ‘woke agenda’ that limited anyone’s access to pain meds?
Can the same be said about a bartender refusing to serve someone who appears to be inebriated?
I’m a senior. I’m all for ‘feeling good’. I’ve taken prescribed opioids for pain. But I’m not an opioid or heroin addict.
So, before you can get specific answers about specific results, you have to know how to ask specific questions.
Why is marijuana even listed? Might as well list maple syrup then 😂
The data documenting the harmful and destructive effects of marijuana use—physically, mentally, and psychologically—particularly among young people and their developing brains, is overwhelming.
The cavalier attitude some folks have about marijuana is part of the reason for and problem with drug abuse in Vermont. Not necessarily the underlying psychological reasons people use drugs, but for the legislators who are tasked with making laws: where do you draw the line? How do you tout as innocuous the use of marijuana, while simultaneously condemning the use of other drugs and narcotics? Where is the legislative will to enforce stringent penalties for the sale and use of illegal drugs, when some of those very same legislators have created “safe injection sites?” It’s part of the cognitive dissonance of the majority of our representatives.
It’s like decriminalizing or legalizing prostitution or pedophilia, or mutilating the genitals and breasts of healthy teenage boys and girls. Notwithstanding the very narrow and restrictive parameters for the medicinal use of certain drugs, when something is fundamentally immoral or harmful, how is it ever “safe?” Even the graphically morbid warnings that are required to be placed on cigarette packaging declare that there are no “safe smoking sites.”
That said, the Northern Comfort of maple syrup can be habit-forming, and I’m very thankful for the safe pancake and creemee sites we have here in Vermont.
I’m a maple syrup addict. Bring my own container with me whenever I travel.
Now let’s see. We give users clean needles, a place to shoot up, punish citizens who won’t carry a Narcam to help someone, have refunded the police and want to legalize drugs. Oh yes, we allow trafficking for the sake of diversity and Sarah George doesn’t prosecute. I think I covered everything.
I love to see all of our leaders to take a drug test