Drug overdose deaths in 2020 hit highest number ever recorded, CDC data shows

[former9thward]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. That's a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019.

"Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids (such as prescription pain medication)," the NCHS said in a statement.

"This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/drug-overdose-deaths-2020/index.html

[Stuart G]

1. Thanks for the information & the post...Very Sad Indeed.

[modrepub]

2. Sad

But I don't have much hope anything will be done. We can't get nearly half the US population to give a damn about a pandemic that's killed over half a million of our citizens.

[sarisataka]

3. I have seen the idea put forth

That if we legalized drugs this death toll will go down and stop the illegal drug industry.

I am unclear how more available drugs leads to less deaths. It was discussed last week that despite legalization there are many illegal Marijuana grows in California so I am doubtful of the second part as well.

[myccrider]

6. The idea, as I understand it...

is that prohibition, aka the War on Drugs, is a failure and has not decreased the use of illicit drugs (or stopped the illicit use of "legal" drugs like prescription opioids) any more than prohibition in the 20s stopped the use or abuse of alcohol. All it did and does is create a huge black market that enriches criminals and corrupts governments. The money and resources saved by not chasing down consumers and criminals from the black market created by prohibition should be used to regulate the drugs and make them safer, so that things like "The coroner said whatever he took was laced with fentanyl" aren’t happening, and to fund treatment for those who become addicted plus education campaigns about the dangers of addiction.

The whole California fiasco is, imo, a combination of our badly written law, which makes it very difficult for small marijuana growers/distributors to get in or stay in the market and makes the retail price way too high, thus creating another black market as some customers search for more reasonable prices. Marijuana should be regulated and taxed more like alcohol. And secondarily, I think there will be a transition period where some of the outlaw drug gangs figure out that it’s more profitable to play by the rules than to keep doing business the old way.

Besides, marijuana doesn’t appreciably, if at all, contribute to overdose deaths. Tylenol is more dangerous.

[deurbano]

4. My childhood friend's beautiful grandson just died on Sunday of an overdose at 24.

He was in a half-way house and had recently gotten a job, and she felt she was finally starting to see the the boy she remembered again. The coroner said whatever he took was laced with fentanyl, and he never really had a chance. Apparently, the borders being closed for COVID is resulting in other drugs (now harder to get) being increasingly laced with fentanyl? (Or so my friend heard...) Such a tragedy.

[angrychair]

5. So what about trump's big program???

I thought Melanie trump was putting in all this hard work to combat opioids and as I predicted, not only did things not get better but they got worse.
Everything the trump's touch turns to shit.