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While many consider the opioid crisis to be a national issue, there are certain areas it hits harder than others. , an associate professor of sociology at the Maxwell School, told UPI in a recent interview that economic and social conditions play a large role where this epidemic strikes hardest.

“The drug epidemic is a pressing concern among policymakers, but the media portrayal of the drug overdose epidemic has largely been that it is a national crisis, with the common refrain that ‘addiction does not discriminate,'” she said. “Failure to consider the substantial geographic variation in drug-related mortality rates may lead to failure to target the hardest-hit areas.”