In terms of the number of people that drug use kills each year in the United States, which statement is true?

• A. Illegal drugs kill roughly 30 times as many people as legal drugs
• B. Legal drugs kill roughly 30 times as many people as illegal drugs
• C. Illegal and legal drugs kill about the same number
• D. The numbers remain unknown

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is that the death toll from legal drugs is much higher than from illegal drugs because legal substances are used by a far larger portion of the population. Tobacco and alcohol are legal and widely consumed, and their deaths come from a mix of chronic diseases and accidents linked to long-term use. Even though illegal drugs can be deadly, the total number of people affected is smaller, so the overall fatalities from legal drugs are much greater—often described as roughly thirty times higher. The exact figures shift year to year, but this pattern is consistently observed in public health data. So that statement captures the relative magnitude accurately.