--- title: Heroin, Opioids, Xanax: America's Overdose Problems description: It's not just opioids and heroin. Fatal overdoses of other drugs are also steeply on the rise canonical: https://time.com/4274651/obama-opioid-addiction-summit/ author: Chris Wilson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-29T16:43:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T15:25:01.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Opioids Aren't the Only Drug Epidemic in America og:description: Fatal overdoses of cocaine, sedatives and stimulants are also steeply on the rise og:url: https://time.com/4274651/obama-opioid-addiction-summit/ 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: Opioids Aren't the Only Drug Epidemic in America twitter:description: Fatal overdoses of cocaine, sedatives and stimulants are also steeply on the rise twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 5 Charts That Show How Bad America's Drug Problem Is > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Know Right Now: Heroin-Related Deaths Have Quadrupled [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Heroin-Related Deaths Have Quadrupled](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/s6gD94n4.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2015-03-04. Heroin-Related deaths have quadrupled in America within the last three years._  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:25 PM UTCPublished: Mar 29, 2016 4:43 PM UTC  by [Chris Wilson](https://time.com/author/chris-wilson/)  ## Chris Wilson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 3:25 PM UTCPublished: Mar 29, 2016 4:43 PM UTC [President Obama addressed](http://nationalrxdrugabusesummit.org/presidents-visit/) the National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin summit in Atlanta Tuesday, calling further attention to the drug epidemic in America just two weeks after the [Centers for Disease Control issued new recommendations](http://time.com/4259639/cdc-federal-government-national-standards-prescription-painkillers/) on limited the use of narcotic painkillers. Data clearly shows that [opioid and heroin addiction have become an epidemic](http://time.com/4260798/drug-epidemic-america/?xid=tcoshare) in the past 15 years. But prescription painkillers and heroin are not the only drugs whose use has exploded in the past 15 years. Using the same [CDC database](http://wonder.cdc.gov/) that tracks the growth in fatal opioid and heroin overdoses, TIME collected data on cocaine, benzodiazepines (sedatives like Valium and Xanax) and stimulants like crystal meth. All three categories have risen dramatically since the year 2000, as the following charts show. Stimulants do not include cocaine, since it has its own category. Unfortunately, the data does not differentiate between crack versus powdered cocaine, a [major policy dispute](http://swampland.time.com/2013/12/19/obama-commutes-sentences-in-crack-cocaine-cases/). **Methodology** TIME uses [CDC mortality](http://wonder.cdc.gov/) ICD-10 codes X40–X44, X85, and Y10–Y14 to measure overdoses. This is a slight departure from the [government data](http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health%5Fpolicy/AADR%5Fdrug%5Fpoisoning%5Finvolving%5FOA%5FHeroin%5FUS%5F2000-2014.pdf), which also use X60–X64, which [encompass intentional self-harm](http://apps.who.int/classifications/apps/icd/icd10online2003/fr-icd.htm?gx60.htm+). The difference in excluding this code does not lead to significant differences in the figures. Like the CDC, TIME defined opioids overdoses as secondary causes of death codes T40.2, T40.3 and T40.4, while heroin overdoses are counted as T40.1\. Benzodiazepines are code T42.4, and stimulants like crystal meth are code 43.6, the [academic standard](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3876881/) for such measures. 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