Perhaps We Learned It From Watching Them: Washington--One of 16 States Where Drugs Kill More People Than Driving
Well, at least it's not just us. 
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta reports that Washington has, along with four other states, joined the company of 12 where driving is now conceivably safer than chasing the dragon--er, drug abuse. Earlier this month, the Washington Traffic Safety Commission reported that the state traffic fatality rate is the lowest it's been since 1955. The current rate:.94--that's 94 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, down slightly from 1.00 in 2007. Conversely, Washington's opiate overdose-related death rate has in the last few years risen to 8.2, says the CDC report. Nationwide, the drug-related death rate doubled from the 1990s to 2006, while the death rate from traffic accidents fell by 6.5 percent during the same period.
So, car accidents remain the number one cause of death in the U.S., but as the roadways become safer, and prescription painkillers like Oxycontin and Vicodin easier to obtain, death by way of drug overdose is pulling ahead state, by state, by state.
1 comment(s)
Angie says:
Sounds like we would benefit from a legal safer alternative.
http://www.saferchoice.org/
Posted On: Thursday, Oct. 1 2009 @ 1:33PM