High school students in Louisiana are using intravenous drugs at three times the rate of the national average, according to an analysis of government data exclusively obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Eight percent of Louisiana high school students tried to inject illegal drugs in 2017, compared with 2.7 percent of students nationwide, according to a report by American Addiction Centers’ “Project Know.” The company analyzed information from the latest Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Drugs that can be injected include heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, ketamine, PCP, and prescription drugs.
Arkansas was the runner-up — 7.4 percent of students admitted to having used needles to shoot up. Of the remaining states, 20 reported rates of 1 percent to 4.4 percent, while the remainder did not report any use.
Intravenous drugs are the most deadly kind. In 2017, just under 16,000 people in the U.S. died from overdosing on heroin. Another 29,000 people died from overdosing on synthetic opioids.
Slightly less than 1-in-4 students used illegal drugs in 2017. Arkansas led all states with 31 percent.
Last month, 24.6 million people in the U.S. said they had used illicit drugs in the past 30 days.
