Drug Deaths

Annual Causes of Deaths in the US

Estimated U.S. deaths in 2000 attributed to: 

Tobacco (Average 1990 - 94):……………..   430,700(1)
Alcohol (1996): ………………………………………  110,640 (2)
Prescription Drug Reactions (1982-1998): ..   32,000 (3)
Suicide (1998): …………………………………    30,575 (4)
Homicide (1998): ………………………………..   18,272 (5)
All licit and illicit drug-induced deaths (1998): ..  16,926 (6)
NSAIDs (1992):…………   7,600 (7)
Marijuana: ………………………….  0 (8)

1. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, from the beginning
of 1990 through 1994 �2,153,700 deaths (1,393,200 men and 760,400 women;
total annual average: 430,700 deaths) were attributed to smoking (19.5%
of all deaths).� The CDC notes that �Cigarette smoking remains the
leading preventable cause of death in the United States.�
Source: �Smoking-Attributable Mortality and Years of Potential Life
Lost,� Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (Atlanta, GA: Centers for
Disease Control, 1997), May 23, 1997, Vol. 46, No. 20, p. 449.
2. According to the federal National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, in 1996 an estimated 110,640 people in the US died due to
alcohol.
Source: �Number of deaths and age-adjusted death rates per 100,000
population for categories of alcohol-related (A-R) mortality, United
States and States, 1979-96,� National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, from the web at

http://silk.nih.gov/silk/niaaa1/database/armort01.txt , last accessed
Feb. 12, 2001, citing Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System, Saadatmand, F,
Stinson, FS, Grant, BF, and Dufour, MC, �Surveillance Report #52: Liver
Cirrhosis Mortality in the United States, 1970-96� (Rockville, MD:
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Division of Biometry
and Epidemiology, December 1999).
3. According to Canadian researchers, approximately 32,000 hospitalized
patients (and possibly as many as 106,000) in the USA die each year
because of adverse reactions to their prescribed medications.
Source: Lazarou, J, Pomeranz, BH, Corey, PN, �Incidence of adverse drug
reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective
studies,� Journal of the American Medical Association (Chicago, IL:
American Medical Association, 1998), 1998;279:1200-1205, also letters
column, �Adverse Drug Reactions in Hospitalized Patients,�, JAMA
(Chicago, IL: AMA, 1998), Nov. 25, 1998, Vol. 280, No. 20, from the web
at
http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v280n20/full/jlt1125-1.html , last
accessed Feb. 12, 2001.
4. The US Centers for Disease Control reports that in 1998, there were a
total of 30,575 deaths from suicide in the US.
Source: Murphy, Sheila L., "Deaths: Final Data for 1998,"National Vital
Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center
for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), Table 10, p. 53.
5. The US Centers for Disease Control reports that in 1998, there were a
total of 18,272 deaths from homicide in the US.
Source: Murphy, Sheila L., "Deaths: Final Data for 1998,"National Vital
Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center
for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), Table 10, p. 53.
6. "In 1998 a total of 16,926 persons died of drug-induced causes in the
United States (Table 20). The category ‘drug-induced causes’ includes
not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of drugs (legal and
illegal use), but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other
drugs. It excludes accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly
related to drug use. Also excluded are newborn deaths due to mother’s
drug use." The total number of deaths in the US in 1998 was 2,337,256.
Source: Murphy, Sheila L., "Deaths: Final Data for 1998,"National Vital
Statistics Reports, Vol. 48, No. 11 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center
for Health Statistics, July 24, 2000), pp. 1, 10.
7. "Each year, use of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs)
accounts for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in
the United States." (NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen,
diclofenac, ketoprofen, and tiaprofenic acid.)
Source: Robyn Tamblyn, PhD; Laeora Berkson, MD, MHPE, FRCPC; W. Dale
Dauphinee, MD, FRCPC; David Gayton, MD, PhD, FRCPC; Roland Grad, MD,
MSc; Allen Huang, MD, FRCPC; Lisa Isaac, PhD; Peter McLeod, MD, FRCPC;
and Linda Snell, MD, MHPE, FRCPC, "Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and
the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice," Annals
of Internal Medicine (Washington, DC: American College of Physicians,
1997), September 15, 1997, 127:429-438, from the web at

http://www.acponline.org/journals/annals/15sep97/nsaid.htm , last
accessed Feb. 14, 2001, citing Fries, JF, "Assessing and understanding
patient risk," Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology Supplement,
1992;92:21-4.
8. An exhaustive search of the literature finds no deaths induced by
marijuana. The US Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) records instances of
drug mentions in medical examiners� reports, and though marijuana is
mentioned, it is usually in combination with alcohol or other drugs.
Marijuana alone has not been shown to cause an overdose death.
Sources: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), available on the web at
http://www.samhsa.gov/ ; also see Janet E.
Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr.,
and John A Benson, Jr., Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science
Base. Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of
Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999, available on the
web at
http://www.nap.edu/html/marimed/ ; and US Department of Justice,
Drug Enforcement Administration, �In the Matter of Marijuana
Rescheduling Petition� (Docket #86-22), September 6, 1988, p. 57.