To Reverse Our Despair

A new study by economists shows a profound correlation between deaths of despair and the repeal of blue laws.

A new study by economists Tyler Giles, Daniel Hungerman, and Tamar Oostrom, “Opiates of the Masses: Deaths of Despair and the Decline of American Religion,” finds that the cause of the dramatic increase in so-called deaths of despair—such as suicides, deaths by opiate addiction and overdose, and alcoholism—is, quite simply, the decline of “organized rel…