Drug overdose happens. Sometimes people are lucky and they come out of it okay. Other times they come out of their overdose with physical or mental problems. Or they end up in a coma. Or they die.
An overdose can happen when:
- You take too much of a drug or too many drugs
- You use too many different drugs or mix drugs
- You just try a drug … even once
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
In 2017, there were 967,615 nonfatal drug overdose ED visits (300.2 per 100,000 population). From 2016 to 2017, rates for nonfatal overdoses increased for those involving all drugs (4.3%), all opioids (3.1%), nonheroin opioids (3.6%), heroin (3.6%), and cocaine (32.9%), whereas the rate for overdoses involving benzodiazepines decreased 5.2%.).