Dying young
The opioid crisis is affecting U.S. life expectancy
With continuing advances in medicine and the other sciences, not to mention the growth of the senior living industry, Americans might have been lulled into believing that life expectancy is on the rise. Sadly, that is not the case.
Life expectancy in the U.S. has fallen for the second year in a row, according to recently released federal data, and the opioid crisis is largely to blame. The findings from the National Center for Health Statistics are one more shot across the bow, a warning of the urgent need to tackle the opioid fight with fresh ideas and additional resources. It is the plague of our time.
Average life expectancy in 2016 was 78.6 years, down from 78.7 years in 2015. It also dropped a tick between 2014 and 2015. These are the first back-to-back decreases since the 1960s and a sign of how stubbornly resistant to treatment, not unlike some bacteria, the opioid crisis has become.
More than 63,600 people in America died of drug overdoses last year, up from 52,404 in 2015 and 47,055 in 2014. Pennsylvania’s 2016 age-adjusted overdose death rate was 37.9 per 100,000 residents, fifth-highest in the nation. Only West Virginia (52), Ohio (39.1), New Hampshire (39) and Washington, D.C., (38.8) had higher rates.
Last year, unintentional injuries, a category that includes drug overdoses, surpassed chronic lower respiratory diseases as the nation’s thirdleading cause of death. Because overdose victims are predominately young, their deaths have a sharp effect on the life expectancy rate.
Across the nation, including in Pennsylvania, authorities have tightened prescribing practices to limit the circulation of these highly addictive drugs, the use of which often leads to fatal experimentation with the street drug heroin. Law enforcement agencies routinely equip patrol officers with reversal drugs that can prevent overdoses from becoming fatal. Communities have mobilized to protect at-risk residents.
Yet the problem has gotten worse instead of better. Not only do the federal numbers show an overall increase in overdose deaths but there’s evidence that addiction, once centered in white communities, now is spreading to black communities.
In Pennsylvania, officials are moving forward with new measures to combat opioids. Last week, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill for regulating many of the sober living houses that are supposed to help their residents remain drug-free. Some have been accused of mismanagement or worse — the operator of one in McKees Rocks has been accused of dealing drugs from his — so state licensing is essential if the facilities truly are to make a difference.
The Legislature also is considering a bill that would enable families to try to force loved ones into treatment for opioid addiction. While the idea has raised concerns about civil liberties, it is appropriate to enact a process similar to the one families may use to force members into mental health evaluations.
In the new year, a greater priority must be placed on drug abuse prevention, and that includes addressing the social issues related to addiction in Appalachia and other poor communities. There is no reversal drug for those problems, but the effort must be given a higher profile. The resources spent fighting addiction — and the lives lost to it — are hurting the nation’s vitality.