Interactive USA Opiate Use Map

[Nodnarb]

Courtesy of the Las Vegas Sun, this interactive map shows prescription opiate use, including hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone, morphine, codeine, fentanyl and meperidine, from 1999-2006 with a variety of different drugs.

After looking at this I wonder why there is such strong regional selectivity in the southeastern states for meperidine (Demerol). Why does Maine show such high rates of use for so many drugs? Why do some states have a "preference" for one drug or another?

Reputation Comments on this post:

	nice one. thanks
	great find! :cool:
	Thanks!
	Thanks for posting the map.

[Richi]

I find it interesting that some drugs (codeine, meperidine) seem to be cleaned up by the DEA and their use fell in time, while the rest of them (hydro, oxy, morphine, fentanyl, and methadone) have gained in number of users.

[fiveleggedrat]

Swim is a sucker for anything interactive and novel like this!

Thanks, nice post.

[BuffaloBoobs]

Select one of the seven substances the Sun examined in its reporting of this new drug epidemic...

Oh snap, now the country's addicted to opiates! Where will the madness end?!
Cool map, though. Some interesting differences.

[fnord]

Originally Posted by Nodnarb

Why does Maine show such high rates of use for so many drugs?

No coment....

[MachinaDeus]

Why do some states have a "preference" for one drug or another?

The demographics of the state overall probably are the reason for that. Some states might have a higher population of elderly people (florida has a high 60+ age population fi i'm not mistaken) and oxycodone which seems really prevelently perscribed to older people, is very common to the state acording to that chart.
Of course many other factors as well. Going to go out on a limb and guess states that tend to have a high drug trafficking rate will correlate with high opiate use as well since they have a higher chance of opiates being smuggled through.
Is it possible that some of the drugs may have been misreported in a high enough number to skew that chart a little bit? Otherwise that chart seems to be a good rough estimate at least.

[Panthers007]

Time to re-do some license plates: Delaware - The Oxycontin State.

[Nodnarb]

Wow. I just typed a long post and somehow I got logged out. Bah

According to the US Census, the percentage of the United States over the age of 65 is 12.4%. According to this interactive map, an average of ~123.5mg of oxycodone is consumed per person.

Here is a list of the top ten states in their average quantity of oxycodone prescribed per person. The percentage is the portion of the population over the age of 65 in that state. The amount of oxycodone consumed per person is in parentheses.

1 Delaware 13.4% (266.7)
2 Florida 16.8% (219.2)
3 Tennessee 12.7% (208.1)
4 Nevada 11.1% (206.4)
5 Maine 14.6% (201.7)
6 Arizona 12.8% (199.5)
7 Connecticut 13.4% (197.6)
8 Ohio 13.3% (188.3)
9 Utah 8.8% (184.6)
10 Pennsylvania 15.2% (180.0)

All of the bolded states have a higher percentage of elderly than the national average. This lends credibility to the suggestion that states with an aged demographic will consume more oxycodone. I actually compiled this information with the suspicion that there was no relationship between oxycodone consumption and population age, but it seems that this is not the case.

While age may be a key factor for oxycodone, what is the key factor for that defines the correlation between some states and their consumption of meperidine? Why is meperidine consumed in the south and nowhere else? How about fentanyl? What do you guys think the factor that ties these states together is?

[Ontherooftops]

Wish they had diacetylmorphine on there, it would be interesting to compare heroin and methadone. Guess they would have to gather their data in a diffrent manner though.

Its interesting how high rates of hydrocodone use through the years sort of sticks to the southeastern US, and nevada.

[Nodnarb]

I have a little update about why this map was made in the first part: it's part of a 3 part series about prescription painkillers.

Here are the links for anyone interested:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3