#MAGA: U.S. Life Expectancy Declines As Opioid Overdoses Hit New Record

.@FLOTUS Melania Trump: “Opioid addiction is an illness that has truly taken hold of our country.” https://t.co/jd1gt5nRqh pic.twitter.com/WjUpe0CpyF

— The Hill (@thehill) November 29, 2018

Brutal facts:

Illegal immigration is about to hit its highest point in a decade.

Even with tariffs, the U.S. trade deficit with China is on track to hit a record high.

U.S. life expectancy is declining as deaths from the opioid epidemic has hit a new record high:

“A class of synthetic drugs has replaced heroin in many major American drug markets, ushering in a more deadly phase of the opioid epidemic.

New numbers Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record. Overdose deaths are higher than deaths from H.I.V., car crashes or gun violence at their peaks. The data also show that the increased deaths correspond strongly with the use of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls.

Since 2013, the number of overdose deaths associated with fentanyls and similar drugs has grown to more than 28,000, from 3,000. Deaths involving fentanyls increased more than 45 percent in 2017 alone. …”

West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are the worst hit states:

“The number of drug overdose deaths in the US was so high in 2017 that it contributed to a drop in life expectancy — for the third year in a row.

According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were more than 70,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017 — the highest number of drug overdose deaths for any single year in US history. The age-adjusted overdose death rate, of 21.7 per 100,000 people, was nearly 10 percent higher than it was in 2016, the CDC found.

The worst states for drug overdose deaths in 2017: West Virginia (57.8 per 100,000 people), Ohio (46.3), and Pennsylvania (44.3). …”

This isn’t really news.

The White working class is still dying from deaths of despair particularly in the Rust Belt. It is primarily men who are dying, but the death toll is rising among middle aged women. The takeaway here is that fentanyl is coming from China over the Mexican border through San Diego like the caravans. We need to elect a president to address these trends in 2020.