The triple wave epidemic: Supply and demand drivers of the US opioid overdose crisis

• Published in: The International journal of drug policy Vol. 71; pp. 183 - 188
• Main Author: Ciccarone, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.09.2019; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: Analgesics, Opioid - poisoning; Analgesics, Opioid - supply & distribution; Death & dying; Drug overdose; Drug Overdose - epidemiology; Drug Overdose - mortality; Epidemics; Fentanyl; Gun violence; Heroin; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Influenza; Injection drug use; Injuries; Life expectancy; Mortality rates; Opioid; Opioid Epidemic - mortality; Opioid Epidemic - trends; Opioid-Related Disorders - epidemiology; Opioid-Related Disorders - mortality; Opioids; Overdose; Overdoses; Pandemics; Poisoning; Supply & demand; United States - epidemiology; Violent deaths; United States; United States > US; Fentanyl; Opioid; Overdose; Injection drug use; Heroin
• ISSN: 0955-3959; 1873-4758
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2019.01.010

The US mortality rate has gone up three years in a row from 2014 to 2017 ( Xu, Murphy, Kochanek, & Arias, 2016 ; Murphy, Xu, Kochanek, & Arias, 2018 ; Kochanek, Murphy, Xu, & Arias, 2017 ). Correspondingly, life expectancy at birth has declined; the first triple year decline since World War One and the devastating influenza pandemic one hundred years ago ( Tejada Vera, Bastian, & Arias, 2017 ). Most of the top ten causes of death are declining year over year; however, the third leading cause of death, unintentional injuries, has climbed in rate and rank since 2014 ( Xu et al., 2016 ). Driving this are deaths due to drug poisoning which exceeded 70,000 in 2017 ( Hedegaard, Miniño, & Warner, 2018 ). Annual deaths due to drug overdoses now exceed those from motor vehicle deaths, gun violence and even HIV at the height of the 1990s HIV epidemic ( Katz, 2017 ).