A recent study conducted by Castlight Health investigated the rates of opioid painkiller abuse in cities across America. Texarkana Texas and Arkansas together are in the top 10 most drug addicted cities in the U.S.A..
At one time when someone thought of drug abuse it was smoking meth, snorting cocaine of shooting heroin with needles, and yes those are major problems, but with the random prescribing of prescription opioid painkillers has made drug addiction in America a lot more common than most would imagine.
These aren’t towns that you would automatically think of as “drug capitals”. Some you may have never even heard of, but yes, Texarkana did make the list.
10. Texarkana TX/AR – Castlight Health says that with Texarkana’s population near 150,000 and finding that 45.1 percent of prescribed painkillers are abused makes Texarkana’s abuse rate on their study #10 on the list with an 8.5 percent abuse rate.
09. Johnson City – Bristol TN/VA – Also referred to as the Tri-Cities area, Johnson City – Bristol has a population near 480,000 with 46.7% of prescriptions for opioid painkillers are abused, resulting in an overall abuse rate of 8.6%.
08. Montgomery AL – State Capital of Alabama also makes the list as a drug capital in the U.S., with a population of 200,000 and an opioid addiction rate of 8.8%.
07. Gadsden AL – Along the Coosa River and a short distance from Birmingham Gadsden has a terrible opioid problem. Roughly 48% of all opioid prescriptions are abused here, resulting in an overall abuse rate of 9.1%.
06. Pensacola, FL. – This is a pretty small town with a population of 50,000, of course those numbers swell during tourist season. If Gadsden sounded bad, Pensacola is worse with 48.1 opioid prescriptions abused for a rate of 9.8%.
05. Hickory, NC. – A really small town compared to others on the list. Hickory has roughly 40,000 in population but the rate of prescription abuse for this town is 9.9%.
04. Enid, OK. – Known primarily as an oil and gas town, Enid has it bad, with prescription rates being abused at 54.7% the rate for this town is 10.2%.
03. Panama City, FL. – With the population in this small Florida town at 36,000 it is one of the smallest cities on the list, it’s drug problem ranks it as #3 most addicted. According to the study with 51.6 of all opioid prescriptions being abused the abuse rate here is 11.5%.
02. Anniston, AL – With a population of only 20,000 the study found 46.6% of all opioid prescriptions are abused, even though the numbers are lower than Panama City, the study finds that this town as a whopping 11.6% addiction rate.
01. Wilmington, NC. – A population of 112,000 and a rate of 53.6% of all prescription opioid pain medication being abused, the addiction rate for this town is a staggering 11.6%.
