The CDC, which provides public data from 1999 to 2012, states that the suicide rate has increased 19.7% over 13 years. While the homicide-by-firearm rate has declined 12% since 1999. So, an American today is three times more likely to die from suicide than from being murdered by a firearm. But, these two rates fail in comparison when it comes to unintentional drug overdoses in The United States. Drug overdose rates have risen by a staggering 164% over the last 13 years. With so much publicity and attention directed towards gun laws in this Nation the real epidemic is being unaddressed on the national level. With Americans reaching more and more everyday into their medicine cabinets we are nothing short of a National Emergency. The mentality of everything today can be fixed by a pill is only making matters worse. Lets fight addiction with recovery by educating the national public on a grand level instead of fighting a pill problem with another pill.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Accessed: 23-Nov-2014.
