during the same period, the District of Columbia had one of the highest overall drug death rates in the country, only staying behind West Virginia — respectively with drug death rates of 40.5 per 100,000 people in comparison to 49.8 per 100,000.
Representatives from the Trust for America’s Health and Well Being Trust Released stated that the report — called ‘Pain in the Nation: The Drug, Alcohol and Suicide Epidemics and the Need for a National Resilience Strategy’ — aims to address the national drug abuse crisis by prioritizing prevention and highlighting the benefits of effective addiction treatment.
They added that they hope the data included in Pain in the Nation can influence the creation of a resilience strategy for the entire country but especially for areas that have been severely affected by substance abuse, such as the District of Columbia — where, the report estimates, could have an alcohol and drug suicide death rate increase of 46 percent in the next ten years if no change is made