Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In July 2019, the CDC released preliminary estimates that showed, for the first time since 1990, a decline in fatal drug poisonings (overdose deaths) in the United States—by approximately 5 percent from 2017 to 2018. This decline is borne out in Indiana and Marion County as well. In Indiana, data from the CDC and provisional data from the Indiana State Department of Health show a decline of more than 10%. Marion County, which has the highest fatal drug poisoning count in the state, saw a similar decline, according to data from the IU Public Policy […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. According to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Indiana’s already high smoking rate has gotten worse, in contrast to declines in most other states. That is bad news for Hoosiers and our state’s economy. Smoking remains the number one cause of preventable death in the United States and takes a heavy toll on Indiana especially. An estimated 11,100 Hoosiers die each year from smoking, and an additional 1,400 nonsmokers die annually from exposure to secondhand smoke. Smoking in Indiana also translates to $3.3 billion annually in healthcare costs and another […]