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America's Most And Least Drugged States
Almost one quarter of Americans regularly "take drugs to affect their mood and help them relax" according to the latest poll by Gallup; but which states are the most (and least) medicated?
click image for large legible version...
As Gallup notes, West Virginians are most likely to report near-daily use of drugs or medications that alter their mood or help them relax, followed by residents of Rhode Island. Southern states make up six of the top 10 highest drug use states, while Alaskans, Wyomingites and Californians are least likely to say they use such drugs almost every day.
Meanwhile, when it comes to illegal drug use, the following chart shows drug busts across the country in the three years from 2009-2012...
...and here's where the weed charges were handed down...
...and here's the distribution of coke and meth charges with Arizona taking the top spot on a per capita basis...
...while Delaware wins for heroin charges...
Here's the 30,000 foot view which shows percentage of illegal drug users on a state-by-state basis:
Source: National Geographic
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West "By God" Virginia, the OxyContin capital of the world!
Who would have guessed...
DaddyO
They don't call it "Hillbilly Heroin" for nothing!
By prescription. I think they're tryin to kill off the wiggers.
Man New Hampshire and Maine look better and better everyday. Great demographics too.
You would be surprised. Southern NH is now just a suburb of Boston except for the more rural areas.
Maine... Ever see the movie Deliverance?
California is the most populous state in the union. 15.8% of California's population is still more than most other states combined.
Another misleading article with a dataset rendered useless and immaterial by multiplication.
I am Chumbawamba.
Bullshit data for sure. Alaska is full of people who enjoy various altered states of mind but there is VERY little effort by the state to arrest and incarcerate those same individuals. All this data seems to show is what states are happy to profit from enforcing drug prohibition.
Alaska could very well rank #1 for getting high and #50 for getting busted. We fixed the prohibition problem last November, who will be next ?
I'm baked.
is hopium included?
i look forward to your every post....and it has nothing to do w what you have to say.
I'm so freakin wasted!
Let's all go to Tacobell...
Ohio. Round on each end and high in the middle.
Aurora borealis and long sunlight days can peak drug use in Alaska.
Honestly, don't know. I enjoy the 747 jumping through the jet stream over Anchorage. Thrill ride. Better than drugs.
the most drug i've experienced so far is called mh370.
when i took it i just saw a fucking planed totally disapear i do not remember where the fuck i put it, this is insane quality drug.
I don't do cocaine. I just love the way it smells
Why thank you, now stay the fuck out unless you plan to work for a living.
Drug dealers cannot work the streets when it's -11 degrees fahrenheit. Fucking climate change ruins job creation.
/sarc
40 below keeps out the riff-raff
Just look at Chicago.
California?!! WTF? 48th place?
My area is the meth manufacturing capital of the world...dry climate lends itself to use of those explosive compounds.
Manufacturing is a different chart set...
Also, arrests are only loosely correlated to use and more correlated to laws and police state methods. There could also be a denial factor in there.
They didn't mention the most destructive drugs nicotine and alcohol which work through cancer and automobile accidents to do deal the most mayhem by far.
Get the problems in the open and deal with them with education and sensible practise. Don't put more money in the hands of drug cartel/DEA crooks.
With the advent of vaping nicotine is no worse than coffee. The nic in cigs is hardly dangerious....it's the other 7000 chemicals that kill you.
+1 for your nick
What is smoking clean tobacco was actually GOOD FOR YOU?
hmmmm....
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/10/03/and-tips/
"They didn't mention the most destructive drugs nicotine and alcohol"
No dumbass, the most destructive drugs are the chemicals the food conglomerates put in the shit you buy at the supermarket.
I don't smoke cigarettes (2-3 cigars a year, tops), but I think nicotine gets a bad rap. "Niacin", AKA Vitamin B-1 used to be called 'nicotinic acid' until nicotine became a dirty word. Other B-complex vitamins are also based on nicotine. Finally, there's is some preliminary evidence that another nicotine relative, nicotinamide riboside, may be able to slow down age-related degeneration of muscles, skin, etc.
I agree it's the other stuff in smoke that causes most of the health problems. I have friends who vape, and one told me that he no longer gets up in the morning having to hack out half his lung before his day starts.
Of course, the "Liberals" in Ontario want to ban or limit e-cigs the way they do tobacco, once they've put the finishing touches on their new 'sex ed' (read: "grooming") curriculum, which teaches kids who haven't even reached puberty the mechanics of sodomy and fellatio. To our dyke Premier (former Minister of Education) and her hand-picked assistant, former Deputy Minister of Education Bernard Levin, this is just 'natural'. Levin was convicted last month of multiple counts related to child sexual abuse, including counseling a police officer (pretending to be a woman online) how to set up her 12-year old daughter to have sex with mom's boyfriend.
See my post above.
15.8% of California's population = a shitload of people.
-Chumblez.
Is this why the water shortage is occurring in Kalifornia meth manufacturing consumption?
http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs7/7341/index.htm
Cats using kitty litter will need to swipe their paws to go potty. TSA agents who smell kitty litterbox odor in travel pet carriers will be detained from traveling for 24 hours.
I viewed that web page. There's a section showing the needed equipment. I have everything but cheesecloth. Am I making meth when I'm unconscious?
And why are there suddenly flashing lights outside? Damn those key loggers!
You in SLO county? One of the most highly medicated counties in the Soviet States of Amerika.
Anecdotally, every single person I know who lives there, is on something.
Sand Berdoo...the desert
"Breaking Bad" was originally set in San Berdoo, but it cost too much to film there so they moved to Albuquerque.
Our California water crisis revealed.
Ah....Fontucky. Nice!!!
Spent more time there than I care to admit....and not for ASSCAR.
Believe it or not, I raced cross country mountain bike in those rocky hills, just a couple miles south of Cherry Ave! We called Fontucky too. Between the truck stops, the interstate and the freight trains, it was a die-hard diesel kingdom!
Really? Damn, I'm born and raised here and hadn't heard that one before. Is that ancedotal evidence or is there a study out there? Also, when you say medicated are you talking purely prescription or any narcotic?
Pain pills and heroine defintiely hit here hard, and with Cal Poly drawing a large number of kids from the cities I've noticed more and more people on antidepressants/anxiety.
So Arizona is toothless as Methamphetamine rots teeth.
Do you know why it is impossible for a Meth Addict to lie through their teeth?
They have lost them all.
So at least one must be a Meth head, eh?
LMAO
A more interesting study of drug abuse stats would break it down by gov agencies, departments, for example:
congress, DEA, BATF, cops, FBI, CIA, SEC, FINRA, OCC, etc. oh but wouldn't you know I believe most of these outfits are exempt from drug testing.
The DEA will pull you to the side of the curb and take your cash.....but if you're really cool about it.....they'll give you some drugs.
Here.....we took this from somebody else.....party on Garth!
true story: in nam we had a guy who's dad was the head of the DEA for the south west USA..he always said his dad took bribes from the drug cartels and worked for them..today some of us think it was the CIA drug biz that his dad was working for. anyway we have spent trillions on law enforcement for the war on drugs and all we get is more illegal drugs..kinda adds up, NO?
Yup we live just a few miles from WVA in SWVA and we are right there with them Opioids, Xanax & Suboxone for all, ye haw
would you happen to be referring to all that coercion and white collardness that obviously doesn't affect the state of West Virginia? Ask chuckles up at the white house. Plenty more where that came from.
i'm obviously a stoner, i read zh too much for that not to be the case.
Oregon, my Oregon...la la la la la!!!!
The CIA loves drug users, they fund all their dirty shit they pull all over the world for their oligarch masters
John Denver's probably real glad he got to "leavin' on a jet plane" when he did, 'cause the only West Virginians who see their State as heaven today are the ones doped up on modern SOMA.
Isn't domestic violence more of Alaska's thing?
Good thing booze isn't a drug or Alaska might have a problem.
Yes, how convenient that they left off two of the most lethal drugs available in the US: alcohol and nicotine.
You get a down-vote for perpetuating the ignorance that is the "lethality of nicotine."
Nicotine is a mild fucking stimulant. Alone, it is completely non-carcinogenic and about as benign as caffeine. Combusted plant matter that contains nicotine, now that's a different story, but the "science" behind nicotine alone being cancerous is about as sound as the "science" behind CO2-based Anthropogenic Global Warming, which is to say, not sound at all.
See my comment above re: nicotine.
Great post. I didn't know the bit about B-vitamin complexes originally being called "nicotinic acid," but you're spot-on about nicotine getting a bad rap. Big Tobacco, like Big Pharma, has utterly destroyed a plant compound that, for all intents and purposes, has as many medicinal benefits as it does deficits.
Alaska is the drunkest and stoniest state but takes the least narcotics. Probably a good thing Alaska does not share border with Mexico otherwise it would be the drugiest.
on that note, there's no way UT is more drugged up than NJ. this poll doesn't account for regional perceptions. in UT, caffeine is largely considered a mood altering drug. in NJ, ritalin isn't.
We drugged some white folks.
Yeah, WTF happened to Rhode Island?
I was wondering about RI. Why is it so different from CT for legal/prescription drugs? I can see why RI is worse for illegal drugs; there are some bizarre towns there like Central Falls that seem to be drug-corrupt in a way that CT couldn't match (CT just does regular corrupt).
NJ looks low. I'd revisit the sampling methodology there.
No way California is that low, totally bogus.
Californian's know better than to answer truthfully.
Or they have attorneys so charges are dropped. West Virginians not so fortunate.
Governor Moonbeam Jerry's office alone.....just sayin.
O/T however...
A local L.E.O. knocked on my door to ask if I knew my flag was upside down.
I told him it was a universal distress signal.
He chuckled and said I didn't know the half of it.
I laughed, and didn't correct him.
When living in Arizona I turned my License Plate on my car upside down.
I drove around for a few MONTHS.
Cops would get on my six, pull up, then back off. I was intentionally baiting them to pull ne over.
Finally, a cop who had some balls, did not pull me over but drove up along side of my car.
He asked me, "Is there any reason that your license plate is upside down"?
I laughed and asked, "It is?"
He snarled and said, "I'd suggest that you change that. That is improper display of a Licence Plate."
Now I believe that it was Freedom of Speech.
But since he was cool about it, on that hot summer day, I did not fuck with him.
Perhaps I will do that here in California and go to jail when wrote a fix it ticket.
I can use an army after all.
"Californian's know better than to answer truthfully."
Maybe some of the people questioned did not "entender la pregunta" (understand the question).
"De qué estás hablando?"
Nevada way too low, must be all the Mormons.
They don't have enough water to wash down the pills.
The war on drug crowd told us everybody in Colorado would be wasted because legal pot stores, but according to this, it's not true.
We've got a "study" to fit any narrative. I don't care what you read, the earth is cooling, bitchez.
Of course it is cooling. It has been since pretty much day one and will continue to do so until either the sun goes nova or the core seizes up like Mars. Then we'll lose a lot of gravity and atmosphere and things will really go south.
Oh you mean the atmosphere? That is called weather. It happens sometimes.
Holy Shit! We're losing gravity??
There's got to be a boatload of government money researching THAT...
This losing gravity thing is the best news I've heard all year.
Now I won't have to go on that diet my doctor keeps nagging me about.
Soon as I saw California's numbers I knew this piece was bullshit. On another note, if 25% of Americans report mood altering drug use- and another 25%-50% are prob good for alcohol use- now we know why the country doesn't know WTF is going on.
And some do both or more.
Add in the shit in your food if you eat the processed stuff...
Add in the pesticides that are in your fresh fruit and veggies too...
Add in the fluoride in your water which even the government is forced to admit makes you lose IQ points...
Add in the effects of various plastics off gassing...
Yeah, we on this website are geniuses. We can see everything going on even with all the shit they are throwing at us. Image the super genius power we would unleash if you got us all fresh food, clean water, clear air...
We're fucked.
That's the spirit!!!
Thats why I only drink rain water and pure grain alcohol.
One of the things that I noticed almost everywhere I went in the USSA recently was the color of the scrambled eggs - it was not natural...
does FB, TV, and smart phones count as drugs, cuz if they do then the useage rate is about 90% every where I go, and parents have no problem starting their tiny children on it, because.... wait for it...
AMERICA FUCK YEAH!
Not me; I never take drugs to affect my mood. Though I need to relax maybe. I nearly killed a barista today who was slow to deliver my latte. Think I'll go grab a beer.
Nothing sobers me up like a good coff of cuppy
Beating up on your partner is definately "ole time" therapy.
Hard to believe Colorado doesn't rate higher. You have lines outside the medical marijuana clinics at opening time each day.
I live in Denver and never see lines outside recreational or medical marijuana clinics. Most times there are 2-3 people in a clinic at one time buying 1/8s & 1/4s.
Huh? Colorado should be dead LAST because weed isn't illegal there anymore. Everyone in the world smokes weed!!!!
Only 16% or so in Illinois?....Going to have to up my game....
The rest are too busy dodging bullets.
Hmmmm. I totally but WV. What I don't buy is California. California should be up in the list. Problem we have here is that it's all about image and people lie. Maybe it's just me. If someone called me and asked if I use drugs and how often, I would never admit to anything. Never know who's on the other end or who is listening.
Take for granted that the NSA is listening and so by extension are the intel agencies of England, Germany, and Israel. The more your data is shared the better chance that Russia and China can see/hear it also since some of our allies aren't too quick on the uptake when it comes to information security.
Isn't that right Herr Merkel? Yes, I said Herr.
15% of Californian's are taking "mood altering" drugs,to cope with the 85% of Californian's that are taking anti-psychotic drugs..
The reason the rate in California is so low is beacuse they asked the question only in English.
No comprende, senor.
The other half, the English speakers, of them half again answered the question: "Huh?"
They called me for this survey. I said, 'Dude... whuuuut?".
I think they counted my answer as 'no'.
Surf's up Mr. Spicoli
Could get real interesting in California, wait until those fucked up weirdo's don't have any water to wash it all down.. Yeah, good times...
Surprised Maryland isn't up there on the list.
I know I need to do drugs almost daily to continue living here. I guess the rest really drink the Kool-aid.
With regards to Alaska, either they don't know that alchohol is a drug, or they are lying through their teeth ..... possibly both.
Statistically speaking, by their own evidence, 20% of the folks running this study are taking drugs.
Also with regard to Alaska...guess Matanooska Thunderfuck doesn't count either. But at least it's legal now.
Sorry but I'm going to have to call bullshit on this bullshit.
I lived in LA for awhile and you could smell crack burning as you drove through the city. Anywhere in the city. Beverly Hills, Skid Row, Hollywood. Just like you smell manure in the Spring in the farming areas, you smell crack in LA. And that's just crack. Imagine the laundry list of non-burning libations that are enjoyed there. Parents enjoy getting fucked-up with their kids in LA. I can't speak for the rest of California, but judging from its winery fame, it ain't much better.
yup california in next to last data is worthless. for shure
Be grateful you don't live in the Metro DC area, the stench of jenkem is overwhelming wherever you go.
When I was in DC, all I could smell were homeless people (everywhere, wall-to-wall) and corruption.
Is jenkem a new spokesperson for the State Department?
Sniffing fermented shit to get high. People will do anything to get high. Especially if there starving.
When I was growing up in Lakeside CA, it was common to smell meth cooking as you drove around. El Cajon, Lemon Grove, Santee, National City, and other places.
It was everywhere and its use was common -- although at that time most people snorted it.
You would be absolutely amazed at the percentage of people taking psychotropics... You know, the kind that make you want to co-pilot a plane full of people into a mountain side - calmly...
But don't you dare attempt to grow a deadly weapon of mass destruction called murderjuana because the children.
Moonshine is a drug in WV.
This is actually good news.
People who are drugged are far more likely to believe BLS statistics, and the repeated mantra of a recovery.
If enough people believe in the fantacy, the collective illusion can continue.
On the flip side, 20% of population are going to be awful cranky should the illusion collapse.
Just wait to see how cranky they get when they can't fill their 'scripts.
The walking dead would have real competition.
Yeah, 30 days out will be real ugly.
But for today, a nice swell is rolling in and the surf is up.
I always leave the doom at the shoreline.
;)))
They should have also asked their debt to income ratio. More likely they're loaded with debt, overweight and exist in a house stuffed to the rafters with crap.
And people who can NEVER stop looking at their smartphones, computers, and TVs. They just can't be bothered to notice or beleive anything that doesn't come from one of these 'trusted' sources.
The zombies, they're everywhere I don't want to be.
1 outta 5 in Kali is on a mood-altering bender on any given day of the week... But they're 'prescription medications', not those nasty marijuana, meth and coke 'drugs' that makes one fly planes into mountain sides while calmly eating a ham sandwich...
Is it true that in Califas they give you a drug prescription and a CNBC subscription?
Troof: Y'all needs more drugs to watch CNBS than sit through an entire Grateful Dead concert.
Utah is the antidepressant and cosmetic surgery leader of the nation.
Wow skewed much? Of course smaller populations would yield a larger "average". This is almost as bad as the electoral college.
That isn't how statistics work.... Assuming each state had the same sample size and it was adequately large enough to minimize variance then your comment is completely false. As with all statistics generated through surveys, there will be "noise" and the number provided has a certain confidence interval regarding the range of the true number. However, your comment that merely because a state has a smaller population than other states will mean there is a higher average is completely off base.
Thanks in part to the greedy sociopaths in white coats and ignorant patients who treat them like gods.
Those maps tell one not to travel on I-80 through Nebraska and Iowa with a year-old roach in the ashtray.
Any map that doesn't express human activities on a per capita basis is just a population density map. The last map is the only one that matters.
Gallup: "Do you still beat your wife?"
West Virginian: Wut? No, I mean wut? New Yorker: Fuck you bitch!
Gallup: "How bout drugs, do you use drugs?"
West Virginian: Well yeah, Ambien to sleep and coffee to wake up. New Yorker: Bitch, get the fuck out my face!
Another Gallup Poll done incredibly wrong, look at the drug bust chart and tell me about New York, Chicago, Cleveland, Bawhstun, LA, Baltimore etc...hell I'll give ya the cess pool of Atlanta ;-)
West Virginia could be the most medicated.....or.....
it may be that West Virginians are just the most honest..... ; )
Counting pot users in with meth and heroin pretty much makes the whole thing invalid. Its like counting coffee drinkers and crack users as the same thing.
That's certainly worth repeating
That certainly bears repeating.
There, fixed it for you.
What do bears have to do with it?
Counting pot users in with meth and heroin pretty much makes the whole thing invalid. Its like counting coffee drinkers and crack users as the same thing.
Someone else just said the same thing!
Florida should be number 1
All I conclude from this chart is that people in West Virginia are far more honest than those in Commiefornia.
No info on the drugs Alcohol and Tobacco. Because they already tax it!
Prohibition failed a long time ago.
Other kinds of Prohibition will totally fail eventually.
Because they NEED the money!
CHEERS!!!
I'll drink to a drug-free Cali
What's in West Virginia that makes it stand out for drug use?
West Virginians...,.
Doing my part to help my state overtake WV.
So roughly 70% of each state lied on the survey.
3 days of pain pills is enough for me. Then I switch to IPA beer.
I guess they don't consider Hot Pockets and Chips Ahoy drugs.
Hot pockets is actually chemotherapy for brain tumors.
I didn't read the article. Did they include 'shrooms and LSD?
If they didn't that could be where the missing dark matter of California is hiding.
Thermosphere is collapsing. They think it's related to CO2. The sun hasn't produced enough CME's during solar minimum.
http://www.thelongview.com.au/documents/NEW-CLIMATE-CYCLE-2010-TO-2028-K...
Jackasses walking the plantation with head's lodged up their anus.
i went for my medicare physical (state mandated i believe) and the md says my bp is too high, and i said its only a few points different than it was in h.s. its been 130 something forever. thats too high he says, and so now i have to work on it, which what do you think? can an entire country get its bp down to 128 without massive medications which sedate you? i have one of those bp machines and if i really work at it, deep breathing, relaxation techniques i can bring my bp down to state mandated levels, but who the hell lives that way? if there is no blood getting to your brain you will probably vote for whoever they tell you to vote for. if you took the average bp of a ZH reader it would be ten points higher at least than your average joe. life in these united states with all the thievery and corruption is one non stop fucking hassle. so just sit back and meditate, obama has your back, and your bp meds.
Good post. What kind of stupid piece of shit would downvote this and not leave a comment?
Either a medmonopoly employee or perhaps a drug company employee? Registered dietician telling us to heat high carb low fat.
They're all full of shit. Keep up the good work.
sidelight to the blood pressure conspiracy, i had my bp taken with their best machine, and the red lights went off, so i went into the room where they have the less modern machine, and my bp was still over 140. then the doctor got his old squeeze ball hand held device and checked my bp, and it was my usual rate of about 135. and he accepts that number, so much as to say we dont necessarily trust these bp machines. so i agreed to cut down on the salty snacks, i already exercise. the showdown is coming next visit i am sure, i'll keep you posted. that number 128 is the national benchmark in the book from my supplemental company. hasnt been that low since i was zygote
George Washington that's who. Comment on his half truths propaganda bs and he down votes you. His only reply is Umm, or soldier #1 with another link to his bullshit blog. But I made a promise and so I carry on.
All I get from this is that west virgia is the dumbest state because they get caught more than the rest of everyone. There's no fucking way in hell west virgina has a higher average of drug users than florida, cali, missouri, michigan, texas, new mexico, arizona. It must be that moonshine that makes them more reckless which leads to more arrests.
Consequence of coal mines shutting down - idle people. Other than WV University and medical community, jobs are hard to find. Packing up and moving to a new job is not easy for these people as their families are all in one place. It's a long day when you do not have a job. When I lived there in 1977 to 1984, at least in Fairmont, Morganton, Parkersburg, and surrounding rural areas, everyone was fine because money was flowing through Main Street from the coal miners who made a good living. Everyone worked in the mines in some capacity. They quit school to work in the mines. Bad management. If this is what having "leadership" does, I can only wonder what life would be like withotu politicians.
bunny, if we have learned one thing , I think we can agree: politicians think very little about american's having jobs, having power over job less derelicts only creates opportunity for more laws.,.bullish for DC.