Maps chart 2015 deaths from opiates by state

The Washington Post has created maps that chart, from 2015, the most opioid deaths, rates for deaths from heroin, synthetic opioids (mainly fentanyl) and natural opioids (such as hydrocodone and oxycodone), with data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Post map: Age-adjusted opioid overdose death rates per 100,000 people in 2015)

More than 33,000 people died from opioid overdoses last year, a rate of 10.4 per every 100,000 people, Christopher Ingraham reports for the Post. The map above shows that numbers were much higher in some states, such as Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia (which share the Appalachian region that is plagued by drugs) and some areas of New England, while death rates were lower in Texas, California, the northern Plains states and Hawaii. (Map: Age-adjusted heroin overdose death rates per 100,000 people)

The map above shows that heroin overdose rates are higher in Ohio and West Virginia and some areas of New England, but lower in many states in the South, Southwest, West and Plains, Ingraham writes. (Map: Age-adjusted synthetic opioid overdose death rates per 100,000 people)

"Nationally, the death rate from synthetic opioids is 3.1 per 100,000," Ingraham writes. "But in Rhode Island, it's 13.2; in Massachusetts, 14.4; and in New Hampshire, which has the highest synthetic opioid death rate in the country, 24.1 out of every 100,000 people died from synthetic opiates in 2015." Numbers also are high in Ohio and West Virginia. (Map: Age-adjusted natural opioid overdose death rates per 100,000 people)