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Wisconsin Drug Statistics and Facts

  • From 2002 to 2009, more than 1,200 persons died of drug overdoses in Ozaukee, Waukesha, Washington and Milwaukee counties, in Wisconsin.
  • The state Department of Health Services, in Wisconsin, counted just over 500 overdose deaths in 2010.
  • From 2005 to 2010, Heroin deaths, in Wisconsin, more than doubled.
  • In 2010, Wisconsin hospitals treated more than 15,000 people for drug abuse, 4,000 of them in Milwaukee County.
  • Recent data suggest that, in Wisconsin, prescription drugs are the 2nd most common drug used for non medical purposes after Marijuana.
  • In 2009, 20.5 percent of Wisconsin high school students reported ever taking a prescription drug (like OxyContin, Xanax, Vicodin, Adderall, Ritalin, or Percocet) without a doctors prescription. That is identical to the U.S. average of 20 percent.
  • Between 2007 and 2008, 15 percent of Wisconsin adults reported using painkillers for non recreational purposes.
  • Opioids other than Methadone and Heroin were the most common drug mentioned on the death certificate as 1 cause of death, in Wisconsin. Mentions of Benzodiazepines also increased sharply between 2005 and 2008.
  • In Wisconsin, 15,008 people entered a substance abuse rehabilitation center for alcohol dependence in 2010. There were an additional 5,998 people that were admitted for alcohol dependence mixed with a secondary drug.
  • In 2006 to 2009, Wisconsin had the highest rate in the Nation of self-reported drinking and driving.
  • The number of Wisconsin patients receiving publicly funded services for alcohol and other drug abuse declined sharply from 2006 to 2010, falling below the level seen in 2001.
  • Wisconsin's rates of alcohol misuse and use have been among the highest (if not the highest) in the Nation. As of 2010, Wisconsin adults kept on having the highest rate of binge drinking among all U.S. states and territories.
  • In Wisconsin, 1,514 persons entered substance abuse treatment, in 2010, for smoking Cocaine and another 270 persons that ingested Cocaine by other ways.
  • In 2008 to 2009, 13 percent of Wisconsin young adults ages 18 to 25, reported using painkillers for non-medical purposes.
  • Among Wisconsin high school students, in 2011, 18 percent reported illegal use of prescription painkillers at some point in their lives.
  • Wisconsins rate of drug related deaths almost doubled from 2002 through 2010, with Opioid-related overdoses as the most common cause.
  • In Wisconsin, at least 1,732 persons died, 67,345 were arrested, and 3,511 were hurt as a direct result of alcohol abuse and misuse, in 2010.
  • Between 2002 through 2010, Wisconsins rate of death from alcohol-related liver cirrhosis rose from 3.4 to 4.5 per 100,000. The Wisconsin rate has been slightly below the United States rate in recent years.
  • In 2010, 254 Wisconsin residents died in alcohol-related car accidents, according to the national Fatality Analysis Reporting System; this is down from 360 such deaths in 2002.
  • There were 1,709 Wisconsin residents that entered treatment for Opiates other than Heroin, in 2010.