Drugs and alcohol leave a lot of death and destruction in their wake. Here are some sobering statistics on deaths attributed to drugs and alcohol, both within the U.S. and around the world.

1. Approximately one-third of all deaths in the U.S. are attributable to drug use. (Hanson et al., 2004, p. 103)

2. Around 7 million people are killed each year by drugs of abuse, with tobacco leading the list at almost 5 million annual deaths. Alcohol is second at around 2 million worldwide deaths, while other illicit drugs add another 223,000. (Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, 2003)

3. More than 3.3 million people worldwide die each year from accidents or illnesses related to alcohol consumption. (Smith, 2017)

4. More than 200,000 people worldwide die each year from drug overdoses and drug-acquired illnesses such as HIV. (Smith, 2017)

Statistics on overdose deaths

1. • Deaths from drug overdoses surged 21% to more than 63,600 in 2016, largely due to the opioid crisis. This was enough to boost “unintentional injuries” from the number 4 spot to the number 3 spot in terms of causes of death, and it was substantial enough to actually create a drop in overall life expectancy–the second such yearly drop in a row. “This whole decrease in life expectance can be put clearly at the foot of the opioid epidemic,” says Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the CDC. (Whalen, 12-21-2017)

1. • The CDC reported a record 33,091 overdose deaths in 2015 from opioids, a 16% increase over the previous year, which also set a record. This amounts to an average of 91 Americans perishing each day from opioid overdoses, and is the annual equivalent of around eleven 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Smith, 2017)

1. • The CDC’s numbers may be low, however, since other reports say the opioid pandemic sweeping the nation is currently killing 160 people a day from overdoses, and could claim half-a-million lives over the next 10 years. (Solotaroff, 2017)

1. • The number of overdose deaths from +prescription opioids+ nearly quadrupled between 2001 and 2015, to 22,589, according to the CDC. Heroin overdose deaths (which are often spurned on by prescription drug abuse) increased sevenfold in the same time span. (Canal, 2017)

1. • As many as 3,000 people die each year from mixing central nervous system (CNS) depressants like Valium with alcohol. Sometimes this is because they are in such a stupor that they forget they’ve taken the pills and take them again. (Hanson et al., 2004, p. 138)