INTERESTING FACTS WORLD

Incredible and fun facts to explore

Drug Overdoses facts

While investigating facts about Drug Overdoses, I found out little known, but curios details like:

In 1985 a drug smuggler jettisoned 40 kilograms (76 pounds) of cocaine from his airplane over Georgia's Chattahoochee National Forest. A black bear (later dubbed 'Pablo EskoBear') found and ate ALL of the cocaine and died of an inconceivably massive overdose.

how many non violent drug offenders are in prison?

Just 12 days before he died of a drug overdose, Mitch Hedberg went on the Howard Stern show and said, 'I got the drugs under control now,' and that he only used them for the 'creative side of it'.

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across. Here are 50 of the best facts about Drug Overdoses I managed to collect.

what drug counteracts overdose?

  1. Between 2007 and 2012, drug wholesalers shipped 780 million oxycodone and hydrocodone doses to West Virginia, or 433 pills per person. During this time, 1,728 people in the state fatally overdosed on the painkillers.

  2. Canada has an act/law (The Good Samaritan Drug Overdose Act) that in the event that you need to call 911 for someone who’s overdosed, you won’t get arrested for possession of controlled substances charges, and breach of conditions regarding the drug charge

  3. Naloxone (Narcon) has became a mainstay of hospital emergency rooms and medical wards. It can be injected or sprayed up the nose, and can stop/reverse a heroin overdose in under two minutes. It's so vital the World Health Organization placed the drug on its list of essential medications in 1983.

  4. A man on death row in Oklahoma took a drug overdose on his execution day. Prison staff rushed him to a hospital and saved his life...then brought him back to prison and executed him.

  5. Lisa Robin Kelly, who played Eric Foreman's older sister on That 70s Show, had a major drinking and drug problem. She was replaced on the show and eventually overdosed on drugs in rehab.

  6. Rat Park. When given the choice between normal water and morphine water, the rats always chose the drugged water and died. When in Rat Park where they had space, friends and games, they rarely took the drug water and never became addicted or overdosed despite many attempts to trick them

  7. Drug overdose deaths, driven largely by prescription drug overdose deaths, are now the leading cause of injury death in the United States – surpassing motor vehicle crashes.

  8. During a 6-year span, drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to pharmacies throughout West Virginia. 1,728 West Virginians fatally overdosed on those two painkillers during this time.

  9. In 2013 Charlie Sheen appeared on an episode of Conan and said that he had laughed so hard while watching Chappelle Show, he experienced a ruptured hernia and was rushed to the hospital. The producers of Two and a Half Men assumed his hospitalization was a drug overdose and fired him

  10. Eminem almost died from a methadone overdose in 2007. Shorty after being released from the hospital he relapsed but quickly after that he stopped using drugs and has now been sober for ~11 years. The reason he gave for gaining his sobriety is that his family needed him.

drug overdoses facts
What are the best facts about Drug Overdoses?

Drug Overdoses data charts

For your convenience take a look at Drug Overdoses figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

drug overdoses fact data chart about Drug overdose death rates by state (2018 data)
Drug overdose death rates by state (2018 data)

drug overdoses fact data chart about Top 15 drugs involved in drug overdose deaths: United States
Top 15 drugs involved in drug overdose deaths: United States, 2016. (Not the most beautiful viz, but the data is accurate)

What is true about drug overdoses?

You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.

In 2010 Dave Grohl was admitted to hospital due to a drug overdose... He had consumed too much caffeine from coffee whilst recording a new album.

A $27-million lottery winner paid for his friends' funerals after giving them so much money that they overdosed on drugs and died - source

Bruce Alexander, an experimental psychologist, studied addiction in lab rats, and created Rat Park -- A Rat Utopian World in which rats almost always refused drugs (morphine), while rats in solitary confinement overdosed on a regular basis... - source

Drug overdoses from opiods increased 14% in 2014, killing 40,000 people. This is an increase of 137% since 2000. More people die from drug overdoses, says the CDC, than in road accidents: just under 33,000 people died in traffic accidents last year in 2014.

Most drug overdose deaths are due to legal painkillers: "There's a general belief that because these are pharmaceutical drugs, they're safer than street drugs like heroin" - source

When is meet the drug lords on?

Grapefruit has a number of adverse drug interactions, and when eaten with certain drugs, can lead to accidental overdoses

How many drug offenders are in prison?

The Drug Diamorphine. Synthesised in 1874, it was Branded as a Non-addictive Alternative to Morphine. 15,000 People in the US Alone die Each Year From Overdosing on the Drug, Which is now Known as Heroin.

Cannabis is the only FDA schedule I drug where the overdose death rate stays consistently constant year after year at exactly zero.

A minor league baseball player was once traded away for 10 bats, and he died six months later from a drug overdose.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is so riddled with drugs even the rats overdose.

It was rumored Steve from Blue's Clues had died from a drug overdose, but actually he was going bald & ready to move on from the show

Drug overdoses infographics

Beautiful visual representation of Drug Overdoses numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

drug overdoses fact infographic about Famous musician deaths by unintentional drug overdose: perce

Famous musician deaths by unintentional drug overdose: percentage of deaths attributable to specific drug classes by decade


drug overdoses fact infographic about The United States death rate from drug overdoses is up nearl

The United States death rate from drug overdoses is up nearly 250% since 2000: here's a state by state breakdown.


Interesting facts about drug overdoses

Layne Staley of Alice in Chains weighed only 86 pounds (36 kg) when he died from a drug overdose.

Chris Farley hosted Saturday Night Live just two months before his death by a drug overdose in 1997. The opening skit for the episode had Farley trying to convince Lorne Michaels to let him host, telling him he was clean and sober. The skit, and his opening monologue were cut from re-runs

More Utahns died in 2013 from prescription drug overdose than car wrecks, and that Utah has the 8th highest drug overdose mortality rate in the US.

Drug overdose is the leading cause of deaths from injury in the United States.

Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than guns

How much of the prison population are drug offenders?

In 2014 a New York hospital came under fire after incorrectly declaring a woman as brain dead following a drug overdose. The woman awoke shortly after being taken to the operating room for organ harvesting.

The curse of Atuk, which is an unfilmed screenplay. John Belushi was first offered the role of Atuk, when he died from a drug overdose. Then, Sam Kinison was offered the part, but died in a car crash. Finally, Chris Farley was offered the role, when he died of a drug overdose.

Comedian Greg Giraldo was discovered in a coma and eventually died of a drug overdose after failing to show up for a scheduled performance at a drug addiction recovery benefit.

There is a "medically supervised injection center" in Sydney that allows intravenous drug users a place to shoot up. In 2011 it witnessed 4,400 overdoses without a single fatality

Lisa Robin Kelly, who played Laurie Forman on That 70's Show, died of a drug overdose in 2013, two months after passing out behind the wheel while driving on I-5.

106,000 people in the US die each year as a result of prescription pills prescribed to them in hospitals. This figure does not include overdose, doctor errors, nurse errors, or improper combining of drugs.

Joaquin Phoenix's family was part of a controversial cult "Children of God". Joaquin's brother, River Phoenix (who died in 1993 of a drug overdose on Halloween Night) claimed to have lost his virginity there at 4 years old.

Mitch Hedberg died of a cocaine and heroin drug overdose. His death was formally announced on April 1, 2005, leading some to believe it was an April Fools' Day joke.

The Rat Park experiments, in which isolated rats overdosed on drugs, and rats in social settings avoided them.

Drug overdose was the leading cause of injury death in 2013. For people 25 to 64 years old, overdose caused more deaths than accidents

Arthur Miller's screenplay The Misfits starred his soon-to-be ex-wife Marilyn Monroe. It was only 19 months after Arthur and Marilyn divorced that she died of a 'suspected" drug overdose.

In 1985 a bear died of a cocaine overdose after ingesting a drug shipment dumped from a plane by a smuggler who later, himself, died in a parachuting accident.

On August 8, 2007 Amy Winehouse overdosed on drugs and was treated, but her tour was put on hold in North America.

The film 'Project X' has spawned several grandiose parties in attempts to recreate it, resulting in some parties causing millions of dollars in damages, one death, and dozens of drug overdoses.

If a veteran intentionally crashes a car or dies of a drug overdose and leaves no note, that death may not be counted as suicide."

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Drug Overdoses. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Drug Overdoses so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor