--- title: Drugs in America: Watch the Epidemic Spread description: Newly released data shows the problem growing. This animated graphic shows where the problem spots are, and how they've changed over time. canonical: https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-16T15:54:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T15:56:28.087Z article:section: Health og:title: Watch the Drug Epidemic Spread in America og:description: Newly released data shows the problem growing og:url: https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch the Drug Epidemic Spread in America twitter:description: Newly released data shows the problem growing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch How the Drug Overdose Epidemic Spread in America > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=edce10bf-8e2d-4907-bee5-482a0b6e1914&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Mar 16, 2016 3:54 PM UTC  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Mar 16, 2016 3:54 PM UTC The epidemic of drug overdoses in the U.S. has reached crisis levels, according to newly published data from the [County Health Rankings & Roadmaps project](http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/). The following map shows the spread in per-capita drug overdoses from 2002 to 2014, the most recent year for which data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Because it’s difficult to determine the number of overdoses in small-population counties, the figures in this map represent the CDC’s [statistical estimates](http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/kentucky/2016/measure/factors/146/description) for lethal overdoses in every county. In some cases, this undercounts fatalities, since the model tops out at “over 20 deaths per 100,000 people” when, in fact, a handful of outlying counties have figures much higher than this. But even though the estimates are flawed in some places, there’s enough hard data to show that regional epidemics, like that in the Appalachia region, for instance, began at an epicenter and spread rapidly to neighboring counties and states. Most of the media coverage of this crisis has focused on spiking levels of heroin addiction, particularly in the Northeast. [Several presidential hopefuls](https://news.vice.com/article/presidential-candidates-are-putting-a-national-spotlight-on-new-hampshires-heroin-problem) have also tackled the subject, and last month President Obama included over $1 billion in his budget proposal for [combating heroin and opioid abuse](http://time.com/4204268/president-obama-heroin-epidemic/). A deeper dive into the figures, however, suggests that opioid abuse does not alone account for the dramatic increase in overdoses. While accidental deaths from recreational drug use are unquestionably on the rise, the topline figures encompass a wide variety of substances, from [antidepressants and stimulants](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/X41) to [street drugs](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/X42) to [hormones and antibiotics](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/X44). [CountyHealthRankings.org](http://countyhealthrankings.org), which is a joint venture between the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reports figures that include accidental overdoses as well as suicide through [intentional drug poisoning](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/X60-X84) and cases where the [intent of the victim was unclear](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/Y10-Y34). Bridget Catlin, the co-director of the project, says this is the industry standard for measuring fatal overdoses. Catherine O’Leary, managing director for the professional services firm KPMG, notes that not all drug overdoses fit the common image of junkies who went too far. “If a grandmother takes her prescribed heart medication incorrectly and dies, it gets lumped together with a drug overdose,” she says. Unfortunately, there is no obvious distinction in the way these deaths are reported, so it is not easy to tease out the difference between accidental misuse of legitimate prescriptions versus recreational use of drugs like heroin or cocaine that end tragically. Of course, those ambiguities cannot fully account for the rise in drug-related deaths in the U.S. Figures that TIME pulled directly from the CDC for only the most unambiguous cases of unintended ODs from recreational drugs—”Accidental poisoning by and exposure to narcotics and psychodysleptics \[hallucinogens\],” which bears the [code X42](http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2015/en#/X42)—reveal that the number of cases nationwide rose from 6,009 in 1999 to 16,822 in 2014, an increase of 140% after accounting for the growth in population size. There are some simple ways to curb these deaths, Catlin says—including to make sure emergency personnel are trained in the administration of Naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose before the patient dies—but an epidemic with this many faces will require just as many solutions. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/"},"headline":"Watch How the Drug Overdose Epidemic Spread in America","datePublished":"2016-03-16T15:54:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T15:56:28.087Z","description":"Newly released data shows the problem growing","url":"https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/","keywords":["Public Health","Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chris Wilson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/","name":"Watch How the Drug Overdose Epidemic Spread in America"}}]}] ```