Shifting patterns of illicit drug use and prescription drug abuse indicate that addiction reflects social and cultural conditions at least as much as it does the powers of any substances or of individual vulnerability. Drug problems are especially linked to a person’s age and life stage and to the availability of opportunity and future prospects. As a 2017 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine observes, “The opioid epidemic’s toll is felt across the life span and in every sociodemographic group, but more heavily burdens vulnerable populations, such as those in economically depressed areas of the country.”
