Prescription pill abuse by middle-aged white men has contributed to closing the gap between the life expectancies of black and white Americans

Between 2003 and 2008, life expectancy at birth increased from 75.3 to 76.2 years among non-Hispanic white men and from 68.8 to 70.8 years among non-Hispanic black men. For women, the changes were from 80.3 to 81.2 years (non-Hispanic whites) and 75.7 to 77.5 years (non-Hispanic blacks). These changes reduced the racial gap from 6.5 to 5.4 years among men and from 4.6 to 3.7 years among women. Heart disease, diabetes, homicide, HIV and infant mortality remain the chief causes of the black-white gap. One of the major causes of the decrease in the gap was an increase in poisoning - caused by prescription pill abuse in whites. During the surveyed time period, fatal poisonings were the leading increase among whites – by 58% for men and 74% for women between ages 20 and 54 with 80% to 90% of the unintentional poisoning deaths appearing to be drug-related, with opiates being the primary killer.