Appalachia Struggles With Opioids, Minnesota With Meth

To say opioid addiction has spiked is an understatement. Over the course of the past few years, heroin addiction has grown from a limited problem primarily constrained to urban areas, to a nationwide scourge so large that drug overdose is now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. The sheer scale of America’s current heroin and opioid epidemic is well documented, but just because opioid addiction is a public health and law enforcement problem across the country does not mean that the problem looks the same in all states. Minnesota shares in some national trends, but has certain problems that are all its own.