Story at a glance
- Drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in a single year for the first time, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.
- Provisional data shows overdose deaths increased by nearly 29 percent to 100,306 in a 12-month time frame ending in April.
- The CDC’s National Center for Health and Statistics chief of mortality statistics, Robert Anderson, said the data shows a staggering increase for one year.”
Drug overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in a single year for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday.
Overdose deaths increased by nearly 29 percent to 100,306 in a 12-month time frame ending in April, provisional data shows, according to NBC News.
Robert Anderson, the CDC’s National Center for Health and Statistics chief of mortality statistics, said the data shows a “staggering increase for one year.”
Synthetic opioids, including Fentanyl, accounted for around 75 percent of overdose deaths.
President Biden said in a statement following the announcement that even amid a global pandemic, the U.S. “cannot overlook this epidemic of loss, which has touched families and communities across the country.”
“To all those families who have mourned a loved one and to all those people who are facing addiction or are in recovery: you are in our hearts, and you are not alone. Together, we will turn the tide on this epidemic,” Biden said.
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Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Agency warned in September of an increase in black market painkillers that are laced with fentanyl or methamphetamine.
“Counterfeit pills that contain these dangerous and extremely addictive drugs are more lethal and more accessible than ever before,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said at the time. “In fact, DEA lab analyses reveal that two out of every five fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.”
The agency said the fake pills are readily available on social media platforms and e-commerce websites and are designed to look like prescription drugs. As of September, authorities had seized more than 9.5 million fake pills in 2021.
Andrew Kolodny, medical director of opioid policy research at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, told NBC while the pandemic played a role in overdose deaths, drug addiction in the U.S. has been a persistent issue.
“Opioid addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition such that the stress or the social isolation and the inability to access support groups could have resulted in relapses in people with opioid addiction, and Covid could have made it harder for people with opioid addiction to access treatment, as well,” Kolodny said.
“But for the past few years, opioid overdose deaths in the United States have skyrocketed, he continued. We’ve been in the midst of a severe crisis that’s getting worse and getting worse fast.”
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