Opioid Crisis in North Carolina

North Carolina is no stranger to the opioid crisis sweeping the nation. In this State alone, from 1999 to 2017, more than 13,000 North Carolinians died from opioid overdoses. In 2017, five North Carolinians died each day from unintentional opioid overdoses. In that year, more than 521 million opioid pills were dispensed to North Carolina residents. The death rate attributed to opioid overdoses rose from 116 in 2013 to almost 2,000 in 2017. Among African Americans, the rate of increase in these overdose deaths is higher at the national level even though the actual use of opioid by Whites is higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 5,513 African Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2017, which represented an increase of 26% over the 2016 number. In this show, we talked about the opioid crisis with Attorney Hugh Harris, Outreach & Policy Counsel for the Public Protection Division of the North Carolina Department of Justice and Dr. Jennifer Carroll, Professor of Anthropology at Elon University.