We here so much today of the drug problem, both legal and illegal, that is plaguing our nation.  A personal finance site called Wallethub recently released their study to determine how states rank in the drug epidemic.

Where did the state of Michigan rank?

Unfortunately we moved up 6 spots from 10th a year ago to 4th this year. What does that mean, well Michigan, according to this Wallethub study, is the state with the 4th highest rate of drug use.

According to the study they followed the following methodology:

In order to determine which states have the biggest drug problems, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia in three overall categories: 1) Drug Use & Addiction, 2) Law Enforcement and 3) Drug Health Issues & Rehab.

Those categories include a total of 20 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the biggest drug problem.

We then determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score. This total score was the basis for our final ranking. So the state ranked 1st in this study has the biggest drug problem, based on the data at hand, while the state ranked 51st has the smallest drug problem.

Drug Use & Addiction – Total Points: 50

  • Share of Teenagers Who Used Illicit Drugs in the Past Month: Double Weight (~6.67 Points)
  • Share of Teenagers Who Tried Marijuana Before Age 13: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
  • Share of Teenagers Offered, Sold or Given an Illegal Drug on School Property in the Past Year: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
  • Share of Adults Who Used Illicit Drugs in the Past Month: Triple Weight (~10.00 Points)
  • Number of Opioid Pain Reliever Prescriptions per 100 People: Double Weight (~6.67 Points)
  • Number of Methamphetamine Lab Incidents (population adj): Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
  • Overdose Deaths per Capita: Quadruple Weight (~13.33 Points)
  • Overdose Deaths Growth (2016 vs 2015): Full Weight (~3.33 Points)

Law Enforcement – Total Points: 25

  • Drug Arrests per Capita: Half Weight (~2.78 Points)
  • Drug Arrests on College Campuses per 1,000 Students: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
  • Prescription Drug Monitoring Laws: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
  • Maternity Drug Policy (Is Substance Abuse During Pregnancy a Crime?): Full Weight (~5.56 Points)
  • States with Employee Drug Testing Laws: Full Weight (~5.56 Points)

Drug Health Issues & Rehab – Total Points: 25

  • Share of Adults Who Needed but Didn’t Receive Treatment for Illicit Drug Use in the Past Year: Double Weight (~5.56 Points)

  • Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities per 100,000 People (12 Years and Older) Using Illicit Drugs: Double Weight (~5.56 Points)

  • Admissions to Substance Abuse Treatment Services per 100,000 People (12 Years and Older) Using Illicit Drugs: Full Weight (~2.78 Points)

  • Naloxone Availability without Individual Prescription: Full Weight (~2.78 Points)

  • Share of Addiction Treatment Medication Paid by Medicaid: Full Weight (~2.78 Points)

  • Narcotics Anonymous & Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings Accessibility: Full Weight (~2.78 Points)

  • Substance Abuse & Behavioural Disorder Counsellors per Capita: Full Weight (~2.78 Points)

The only states/District ranked higher than Michigan was:

District of Columbia #1

Missouri #2

New Hampshire #3

The state that ranked the lowest rate of drug use was Minnesota followed by Iowa and Utah.

We must get to root cause of why so many of our fellow citizens feel the need, want or desire to be high or feel the need to overuse powerful prescription medicine which they then get addicted to.

More From WBCKFM