Article snippet: Opioid deaths sharply rise in American communities where multinational automakers have closed their United States plants and outsourced those jobs to foreign countries, the latest medical study confirms. The study by acclaimed researchers, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, notes that American communities that experienced an auto plant closure within the last five years saw a much greater rate of opioid deaths than communities whose auto plants have remained open — confirming that towns and small cities that have been hit by job-killing free trade have suffered more in the opioid crisis. The researchers note: The study’s findings reveal that five years after a community’s auto plant closed, opioid deaths increased by 85 percent compared to communities whose auto plants have not closed. Non-Hispanic white men, ages 18 to 34, are the hardest hit by the opioid crisis in these communities that have suffered an economic downturn due to outsourced auto manufacturing. Non-Hispanic white men from 35 to 65-years-old also are at a much greater risk of opioid death in these towns than other demographic groups, the study discovered. Overall, the study looked at 112 American counties near auto plants from 1999 to 2016. About 28 of these counties experienced an auto plant closure in that time frame — a direct result of China’s entering the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the enactment of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The study comes as automakers like G... Link to the full article to read more