Iowa Sober Living Facilities

Current Drug Problems in Iowa

It’s no breaking news that the USA is facing an opioid epidemic for some years now. Different states in America are struggling to solve the outbreak that’s been plaguing the whole of America including Iowa. Even if Iowa’s drug problem is less disturbing than other states, the problem is still present.

While opioid abuse continues to grow in Iowa, a new state report showed methamphetamine and marijuana rank among the most-common addictive substances threatening the health and safety of Iowans.

Ranking

When all the states in America are ranked for the worst drug problems, Iowa came in at the 50th. They’re one of the areas with the lowest percentage of teenage and adult drug users. There may be some drug-related overdose death cases, but they have the fewest overdose deaths per capita.

Common Substance Abused by Iowans

Iowa is currently fighting drug problem in the state. There are top three substances that contribute to the current drug problem in Iowa. These three substances are methamphetamine, marijuana, and alcohol. Other substances like prescription and synthetic drugs are close behind as well. Among synthetic drugs, marijuana concentrates are the most commonly abused.

Alcohol

Among all the substance abused by the locals of Iowa, alcohol comes as the most abused. The rate of alcohol abuse in the state exceeds the national average. The usual age group that is engaged in binge drinking are those that age from 18 to 25 years old.

Marijuana

Over the years, the abuse rates of marijuana have risen which makes it next to alcohol as the most common substance abused in Iowa. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, more people were killed in a marijuana-related accident compared to other drugs.

Treatment and Solutions

The Iowa Drug Control Strategy used the state’s 2016 information to release a statement on the current drug problem in Iowa. The data shows a promising statistics with Iowa having the second lowest rate of illegal drug use in the country with a 6.27% drug use rate. There may be less opioid cases, but methamphetamine is still close to manageable.

The operation on home-grown meth labs in Iowa as well as the necessary ingredients for cooking meth has been a resounding success. The state is on the process for less than 50 lab reports in 2017, compared to 1,500 in 2004.

On the other hand, the prevention of marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, and prescription abuse in middle schoolers all went down over the past 11 years. Teachers say educating the students is an effective way of lowering the drug rate. It’s not enough to say ‘No to Drugs,’ young ones need to know every consequence that comes with substance abuse.

Cities of Iowa

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