SPEED KILLS –
Dec. 28, 2018 – As an addiction medicine physician, I treat patients with all types of substance use disorders (SUDs): alcohol, opioids, marijuana, cocaine, tobacco, etc. From 1999 to 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that over 700,000 people died from a drug overdose; the vast majority associated with an opioid such as heroin or illicitly-manufactured fentanyl. Addiction is clearly a public health problem that is not fading away. Now, we are seeing a rise in the use of stimulants. From 2011 to 2016, the age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine more than tripled, according to a 2018 CDC Report. In addition, 50% of overdose deaths involving methamphetamine also included one or more other drugs. Just like Chalamet’s Sheff in Beautiful Boy.
