This is really in response to the America moving back to suburbs thread which was running a bit afield.
Looking at this makes me feel like I'm watching "Justified" in map form.
The study further refines the variance in prescribing drugs is mainly due to prescriptions of anti-depressants (the blue map)
http://www.wvpolicy.org/west-virginia-heart-of-the-rx-beltAnd now a map of overdose rates:
Original source
http://healthyamericans.org/reports/drugabuse2013/Now, the overdose map is from 2010 and may be a bit dated by now, plus there's no control for prescription OD vs heroin OD, though I do think muon is probably correct that heroin is a cheaper substitute for prescription drugs. It should also be noted that counties and states can be erratic in their classification of OD.
As for upstate NY and Vt, I've never been up the Hudson Valley and into Vt, but I've been through Cooperstown, along much of the Erie Canal and up to Thousand Islands. I heard people say much the same thing as Torie did, and really much of Western New York has been in decline ever since the Erie Canal became obsolete, but I think Averros is correct in that it's a problem, but the old timers exaggerate (don't they always), however the blue map does show some correlation, while the OD map doesn't. The governor of Vermont has been at the forefront of trying to tackle the heroin issue is probably in part to the fact that it's an intelligent state that has some capability of trying to tackle the issue (not that WV or KY aren't trying, it's just they're in over their heads).
Also of note is that the Rx and overdose maps don't sync up perfectly as the Southwest doesn't seem to have excessive prescriptioning (except, oddly for Mormonland). I'm not surprised that Nevada/Vegas ranks high because it's a Hunter Thompsonland excess of everything, while New Mexico? I dunno, blue meth?
