The Opioid Epidemic Is So Bad It’s Driving Down Life Expectancy in the US

September 20, 2017

(The Verge) – From 1970 to 2000, life expectancy in the US rose by about 2.5 months every year. If that rate had kept up, people born in the US since 2015 should expect to live longer than 79 years. But the annual increase in life expectancy slowed starting in 2000, and stopped altogether in 2014. That’s mostly because the rising death rate from drug overdoses shaved more than three months off life expectancy in 2015. Three months may not seem like much, but that’s roughly the same reduction attributable to rising death rates from injuries, Alzheimer’s, suicide, chronic liver disease, and sepsis combined.