Thanks for your response. Your 1 in 4 figure seems plausible, but I'd be curious to see a source (perhaps it's in your mind map? I read that article of yours and immediately downloaded FreeMind; I'm looking forward to trying it out!). I agree that basic knowledge about drugs can go a long way in terms of harms reduction, like knowing why it's bad to take excessive prescription opioids that contain APAP.
There are about 443,000 annual deaths from smoking.[1] This is about 1 in 5.
Plus another 35,700 deaths from alcohol and alcohol-related automobile accidents.[2] Plus another 7,600 from NSAIDS.[3] Plus another 27,500 from accidental overdose of prescription opioids or illicit drugs.[4] Plus another 8,400 overdoses ruled suicides or where intent was unknown. Plus another 106,000 from fatal adverse reactions to drugs given in hospitals.[5] That's roughly 26% of the 2.4 million annual U.S. deaths right there. (These numbers are from about ten years ago, so I'm using the death rate from about 10 years ago.)
These numbers don't count: deaths from the longterm consequences of prescription drug use, e.g. someone who takes Accutane and dies of liver failure 20 years later. Nor do they count someone who gets AIDS or hepatitis from drug use, someone who develops a mental illness from stimulant abuse, alcohol-related homicide, etc. Sources:
[4] Leonard J. Paulozzi, Richard H. Weisler, Ashwin A. Patkar. A National Epidemic of Unintentional Prescription Opioid Overdose Deaths. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 2011.
[5] Lazarou J, Pomeranz B, Corey P. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients. JAMA. 1998;279:1200-1205.
