Today’s world is an incredibly stressful one to live in. National problems may seem to be far off, but they’re not. These problems show up right here in our neighborhoods and have a major impact on the mental health of children and teens especially.
Approximately 700,000 people live in the District of Columbia. According to federal surveys, more than 60,000 of these people state that they are dependent on or abuse alcohol or illicit drugs — slightly more than one in 10. The national average is about one in 13. Teenagers in the District are 12% more likely to have used drugs in the last month than the average American teen. Similarly, 18- to 25-year-olds in D.C. are 60% more likely to use drugs than the average American in the same age group. Among them, 29% report using marijuana in the last month. The District has two to 18 times the death rate from drugs as D.C. suburbs.
Opioid deaths in the District nearly doubled from 2018 to 2021, according to statistics from the city, and…
Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.
