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Study: 2 in 10 Kentuckians know a heroin or meth user

3 in 10 Ky. adults know someone abusing Rx pills
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CINCINNATI -- Over the post five years, Interact for Health and the Foundation for Healthy Kentucky surveyed adults in Kentucky to learn more about drug abuse in the commonwealth.

The study found that two in 10 adults in Kentucky know someone who uses heroin, two in 10 adults know someone who uses meth and three in 10 adults know someone who abuses pain pills.

People who lived in suburban areas were more likely to know someone who uses heroin than in urban counties, the survey found. On the contrary, twice as many people in rural counties said they knew someone who uses meth than those in suburban counties.

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Pain pill use was reported by 30 percent of rural responders, 26 percent of suburban responders and 22 percent of urban responders.

Interact for Health said nearly five times as many people died from drug overdoses in Kentucky in 2015 than in 2000. In 2015, 1,219 people died from drug overdoses; in 2000, 246 people died from drug overdoses.

The survey was conducted between Sept. 11 and Oct. 19 2016 and used a random sample of 1,580 adults throughout Kentucky, all interviewed by phone.

Read more about the poll here.