Life expectancy fell for second consecutive year in 2016 due to opioid crisis (ThinkProgress)

Thursday Dec 21st, 2017

The life expectancy declined in 2016 for a second consecutive year, and this was largely driven by the country’s drug crisis.

Drug overdoses killed more U.S. residents in 2016 than any other year, according to a 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report on U.S. mortality. More than 63,600 people died of drug overdoses last year; roughly two-thirds, or 42,200 deaths, were associated with opioids. And experts say CDC is likely undercounting opioid-related deaths. For comparison, drug overdoses killed 52,400 people in 2015.

And yet, the federal response to this epidemic has been dismal.

“We have received no additional funding and no sign of additional funding coming our way,” Baltimore City Health Department Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen told ThinkProgress on Thursday. “We continue to struggle with the most basic of lifesaving measures.” Baltimore officials are still rationing the overdose-reversal antidote naloxone, commonly known as its brand name NARCAN.

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When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

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