The rates of opioid overdose deaths in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are all now above the national average, according to a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.
The study, which focused on the impact of the opioid crisis on the labor market in the fourth Federal Reserve district, found that while the nationwide rate of deaths from opioid overdoses sits at around ten per 100,000 people, Pennsylvania’s is around 10.5, Kentucky’s is 20, and Ohio’s is around 22. West Virginia’s is a staggering 35.
The study also showed, as several previous ones also have, that rates of overdoses deaths relating to fentanyl have eclipsed those relating to heroin.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced a national public health emergency to deal with the opioid crisis.
“As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” the president said Thursday. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction. Never been this way. We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic. We can do it.
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