A new state report notes that Iowa has one of the nation’s lowest rates of total illicit drug use, but still must address high levels of alcohol-related deaths and binge drinking and a surge of vaping and meth use.

Dale Woolery, director of the Governor’s Office of Drug Control Policy, said alcohol and meth and are affecting more families than opioid misuse and vaping. “One concerning trend is the increasing potency of a growing number of alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioid, meth and other products with addiction potential,” Woolery said in a statement.

Iowa had the fourth-lowest illicit drug use rate in the nation in the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and the Iowa Youth Survey shows a continued drop in youth substance abuse, especially regarding alcohol and traditional tobacco products. And for the first time in several years, the Iowa Department of Public Health reported a significant drop in opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018 from the year before.

But the health department said alcohol-related deaths in Iowa remain high, and Iowa binge drinking far exceeds the national average.

Read the full report.