Opioid abuse is a nationwide problem. Central New York has certainly had its share of challenges in that department. A recent study suggests that the Empire State is healthier than many other U.S. states currently in some aspects of the war on drugs, while in other areas...not so much.

Drug Use State by State: 2018's Problem Areas, an article published by WalletHub, compares "the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 20 key metrics, ranging from arrest and overdose rates to opioid prescriptions and meth-lab incidents per capita." New York finished in the middle of the pack, #26 overall, although in one key area, New York was #1.

New York ended in a three-way tie (with Iowa and Connecticut) atop the list of states where the Most People Receive Substance Abuse Treatment per 100,000 Drug Abusers. One take on the positive side: that's better than NOT getting treatment. On the dark side: that's a LOT of people with problems.

That metric is just a small portion of the criteria measured by WalletHub:

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.

There were a total of 20 metrics examined that comprised the three overall categories listed above. The state that scored best was Minnesota, while Washington, DC had the worst drug problem, followed by Missouri and New Hampshire.

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