CA: Boomers' Overdose Deaths Up Markedly

LA Times ^ | 10/10/05 | Daniel Costello

[BurbankKarl]

Californians age 40 and older are dying of drug overdoses at double the rate recorded in 1990, a little-noticed trend that upends the notion of hard-core drug use as primarily a young person's peril.

Indeed, overdoses among baby boomers are driving an overall increase in drug deaths so dramatic that soon they may surpass automobile accidents as the state's leading cause of nonnatural deaths.

In 2003, the latest year for which the state has figures, a record 3,691 drug users died, up 73% since 1990. The total surpassed deaths from firearms, homicides and AIDS.

Remarkably, the rate of deadly overdoses among younger users over that period has slightly declined, while the rate among those 40 and older has jumped from 8.6 to 17.3 per hundred thousand people.

The change has caught many prevention programs, which tend to be geared toward young people, off guard. Several drug abuse prevention officials and other experts said there was virtually no strategy in place to address the risk of overdose among older users.

"We have seen a massive, long-term trend toward more middle-age drug abuse that is leading to an unprecedented number of deaths," said Michael Males, a sociology researcher at UC Santa Cruz. But "no one is doing anything about it. It has gotten almost no attention at the state, federal or local level."

[BurbankKarl]

boy george/kate moss ping

[Spruce]

Tune in, Turn on, Drop dead.

[surely_you_jest]

Their livers are starting to lose efficiency.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

Oh the humanity! Wait...this benefits the SSI Trust fund...never mind!

[headsonpikes]

So is this death by drugs attributable to natural selection Darwinism or Predestination?

I'm trying to combine Evo/Crevo, Drug, and Prot/Cath interests to one thread.

In any event, statistics are misleading 99% ot the time +/- 1%, 19 times out of twenty.

And normalized, of course.

[Pondman88]

I watched "Scarface" last night...

What a great movie, especially the end where Tony snorts from a mountain of coke.....

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Old hippies never die, they just embalm themselves.

[NRA1995]

Funny; David Crosby is beginning to look like Wilford Brimley, and he's about 25 years younger than Wilford....

[Wiseghy]

This is simply because Meth., crack and other ultra power stimulants impact hard on the cardiovascular system.

Rehab won't help you if a drug stops your heart.

It's good to bring more attention to this problem. I had no idea it had gotten this bad.

[JennysCool]

Let's see ... The old hippies gleefully try to recapture their youth by leaping into an anti-war frenzy once again, and their drug OD numbers ratchet upwards ... Can I get a grant to study this phenomenon?

[PositiveCogins]

Thanks to that movie we now know to take he coke heads out with a head shot.

[Glenn]

Two things:

1) Boomers can afford drugs kids cannot.

2) Why should kids have all the fun?

[MineralMan]

You think it's bad now? Wait 'til retirement time for all those boomers who haven't got a cent, are mortgaged to 100% of their home's value, and are over-borrowed on their car loans.

Once the unprepared really discover how unprepared they are, I expect the suicide rate to take a big upswing. Mark my words.

I'm 60, so it's just 5 years before the first retirements come into play for the regularly-employed boomers. Watch for it. Me? I'm OK, but then I never worked a regular job after 1974.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Treatment experts said people most at risk are older users who try to stop, then return to using drugs at their previous dosages. The drugs may kill them because the users have lost tolerance or the drugs are more potent. Many street drugs have gotten purer in recent years, experts said, which adds to their potential lethality.

This is interesting, someone in my family went back to drugs after a period of prison/probation and monitoring. As soon as the monitors were off he did it. Of course this is not a good group for warnings to make sense, better to not remove the monitoring/testing.

[add925]

In the sad but likely to be true department:

One reason the right is winning is because of increasing numbers:

Libs O.D. more often than conservatives

Libs have more abortions (won't create future Libs)

Perhaps if we let abortion and illegal drug use stand, it will subside due to dwindling numbers of participants.

Controversial and wacky, but you gotta admit, they're doing it to themselves. The trick is to keep our own kids away from it through parental education.

[funkywbr]

A boomers worst enemies.

The MIRROR!

The WEIGHT SCALE!

And the strange hair that falls out here and grows back THERE???

[Logophile]

"We have seen a massive, long-term trend toward more middle-age drug abuse that is leading to an unprecedented number of deaths," said Michael Males, a sociology researcher at UC Santa Cruz. But "no one is doing anything about it. It has gotten almost no attention at the state, federal or local level."

No one is doing anything about drug abuse? I wonder where he has been the past 30 years. We have laws against illegal drug use in this country. Federal, state, and local police agencies work vigorously to find and arrest those who violate the law. Those who are arrested face prosecution; some end up in jail. What more attention does he want?

[He'sComingBack!]

"...a record 3,691 drug users died, up 73% since 1990. The total surpassed deaths from firearms, homicides and AIDS."

Looks like we should be banning "assault syringes"

[syriacus]

Their livers are starting to lose efficiency.

Back in the Sixties people remarked how few aged druggies there were. I guess some things don't change