DRUGS DEATHS COMPARISON: USA VS EUROPE VS ISRAEL. WHICH COUNTRY IS SAFER?

Don Karl Juravin (JURAVIN RESEARCH) conducted a world’s thorough study of the drug deaths comparing 230 countries. Death From Drugs (Cannabis, Opioids, Cocaine, Amphetamine-type stimulants, Tranquilizers and sedatives, Hallucinogens, Solvents, and inhalants)rate per 1,000,000 aged 15-64 | lower is better | 2018 report Don karl juravin reviews Comparing USA Vs. Europe’s Top Countries (Germany, France, Italy) Vs. Israel     WINNER: Israel

• Israel’s deaths from drugs are 4.28 times better than the world average
• Israel’s deaths from drugs are 20.66 times better than the USA
• Israel’s deaths from drugs are 1.01 times better than Euro-top

Annual deaths

• Israel: 83 deaths
• Euro-top: 1,639 deaths
• USA: 63,632 deaths

Drugs Deaths Important Key Facts

• About 275 million people worldwide, which is roughly 5.6 percent of the global population aged 15–64 years, used drugs at least once during 2016.
• Some 31 million people who use drugs suffer from drug use disorders, meaning that their drug use is harmful to the point where they may need treatment.
• Initial estimates suggest that, globally, 13.8 million young people aged 15–16 years used cannabis in the past year, equivalent to a rate of 5.6 percent.
• Roughly 450,000 people died as a result of drug use in 2015, according to WHO. Of those deaths, 167,750 were directly associated with drug use disorders (mainly overdoses). The rest were indirectly attributable to drug use and included deaths related to HIV and hepatitis C acquired through unsafe injecting practices.
• Opioids continued to cause the most harm, accounting for 76 percent of deaths where drug use disorders were implicated.
• Prevalence of people who inject drugs — some 10.6 million worldwide in 2016 — endure the greatest health risks. More than half of them live with hepatitis C, and one in eight live with HIV.
• Total global opium production jumped by 65 percent from 2016 to 2017, to 10,500 tons, easily the highest estimate recorded by UNODC since it started monitoring global opium production at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
• The surge in opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan meant that the total area under opium poppy cultivation worldwide increased by 37 percent from 2016 to 2017, to almost 420,000 ha. More than 75 percent of that area is in Afghanistan.
• Global cocaine manufacture in 2016 reached its highest level ever: an estimated 1,410 tons. After falling during the period 2005–2013, global cocaine manufacture rose by 56 percent during the period 2013–2016. The increase from 2015 to 2016 was 25 percent.
• Most of the world’s cocaine comes from Colombia, which boosted its manufacture by more than one third from 2015 to 2016, to some 866 tons. The total area under coca bush cultivation worldwide in 2016 was 213,000 ha, almost 69 percent of which was in Colombia.
• One in eight people who inject drugs is living with HIV. Injecting drugs is a major route for transmission of the HCV virus.
• Almost half of all prevalence of people who inject drugs worldwide in 2016 were estimated to reside in just three countries: China, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Although these three countries combined account for just 27 percent of the global population aged 15–64 years, together they are home to 45 percent of the world’s prevalence of people who inject drugs, an estimated 4.8 million people.
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• In 2015 and 2016, for the first time in half a century, life expectancy in the United States of America declined for two consecutive years. A key factor was the increase in unintentional injuries, which includes overdose deaths.
• In 2016, 63,632 people died from a drug overdose in the United States, the highest number on record and a 21 percent increase from the previous year. This was largely due to a rise in deaths associated with pharmaceutical opioids, including fentanyl and fentanyl analogs. This group of opioids, excluding methadone, was implicated in 19,413 deaths in the country, more than double the number in 2015. Evidence suggests that Canada is also affected, with a large number of overdose deaths involving fentanyl and its analogs in 2016.

In Europe, overdose deaths rose for the third consecutive year to reach the highest number on record in 2015 (the latest year for which data are available), with 8,441 deaths. Opioid-related deaths were responsible for the overall increase, with the presence of opioids (mostly heroin) detected in 79 percent of overdose deaths in 2015. Increases in overdose deaths were reported in Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom reported the highest number of overdose deaths in Europe, accounting for approximately one third (31 percent) of the total. In England and Wales, the number of drug misuse deaths for both men and women that were registered in 2016 was the highest since records began in 1993: 2,593 drug misuse deaths, mostly due to heroin and/or morphine. Non-fatal overdoses are substantially more common than fatal ones, with many drug users reporting that they have personally experienced a non-fatal overdose. Overdoses that are fatal make up only a very small proportion of all overdoses, an estimated 2–4 percent. Based on a global, systematic review of the literature, almost half (47 per cent; range: 17 to 68 per cent) of the drug users included in the studies reported that they had experienced a non-fatal overdose at least once in their lives, with almost one in six (17 percent; range: 4 to 38 percent) personally experiencing a non-fatal overdose in the past year. Credits Registered research DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3533251