America’s Opioid Overdose Crisis
Over 72,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2017 in the US, this total was up 63,000 from 2016. Experts estimate that 20 Floridians are dying from overdose every day.
In 2016, 2,789 opioid-related overdose deaths were reported in Florida – a rate of 14.4 deaths per 100,000 persons, compared to the national rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000 persons in the USA. The number of deaths related to drugs, particularly among those related to synthetic opioids have risen dramatically in the past several years. In 2016, there were 1,566 synthetic opioid-related deaths compared to 200 in 2013.
A recent report in The Guardian stated that opioid overdoses in the US increased by 30% in a 14-month period between 2016 – 2017. Following 142,000 US hospital overdoses between July 2016 and September 2017, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) described the crisis as a “wake up call to the fast-moving opioid overdose epidemic”.
Commenting on the crisis, acting director of the CDC, Dr Anne Schuchat states that they are “currently seeing the highest overdose death rates ever recorded in the United States.” The opioid crisis is particularly prominent in cities and towns with metropolitan areas seeing a 54% increase. The data revealed that Wisconsin had a 109% increase in overdoses and Delaware a 105% increase.
Randox Toxicology offer the most comprehensive drugs of abuse test menu across multiple forensic matrices including whole blood, urine and oral fluid. Our level of expertise in toxicology research and development allows us to adapt quickly to the ever-changing market influences and develop assays with optimum target compounds and excellent specificities for current and novel drug trends.
As the need for vital drug screening continues to increase, Randox Toxicology are leading the way toxicology screening. Capable of detecting 21 classical, prescription and synthetic drugs from a single sample, our fully automated Evidence MultiSTAT analyser utilises our Biochip Array Technology to deliver reliable and accurate results in under 20 minutes.
To find out more about our Biochip Array Technology and Evidence MultiSTAT, visit us at ICAP, Orlando, FL. Oct 4th – Oct 9th or get in touch by emailing us at info@randoxtoxicology.com