A nation in overdose peril: Pinpointing the most impacted communities and the local gaps in care

As staggering as the climb in the nation’s overdose death rate has been, the deepening crisis has hit some populations even harder. Older, working-age adults and non-Hispanic whites experienced faster-than-average increases in drug overdose death rates during the 2000s, growing by factors of 5 and 3.5, respectively. New research by Alan B. Krueger for the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity finds that increases in opioid prescriptions might account for 20 percent of the decline in men’s labor force participation since 1999.Although virtually no community remains untouched by this epidemic, some parts of the country have borne the brunt of the recent increases.The media have increasingly chronicled the struggles of people and places affected by growing drug addiction and overdose deaths. Whether in sparsely populated rural areas, the urban core, or suburbia, communities across the country are grappling with similar challenges around access to treatment, effective interventions, and sufficient capacity and resources—challenges that run deeper in many of the economically distressed communities most affected by the opioid crisis.