https://www.apnews.com/28ea92fe500f40c4ac0556860e3b1f1cby Mike Stobbe
August 2, 2019
U.S. drug overdose deaths had been most common in Appalachia and other rural areas in recent years, but they are back to being more concentrated in big cities, according to a government report Friday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that both urban and rural overdose death rates have been rising, but the urban rate shot up more dramatically after 2015 (as) many drug users shifted to heroin and fentanyl, and the illegal drug distribution system for those drugs is more developed in cities(.)
Women still die of overdoses at higher rates in rural areas, the CDC report found. Death rates tied to methamphetamine and prescription opioid painkillers remain higher in rural areas. The urban and rural death rates were nearly identical for people ages 25 to 44, but the urban rate was significantly higher in other age groups, particularly in those ages 45 to 64.
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