The CDC today released a report showing that for the 12 months ending in May, roughly 81,230 people died of a drug overdose in the United States. “This represents a worsening of the drug overdose epidemic in the United States and is the largest number of drug overdoses for a 12-month period ever recorded,” the CDC says in a health advisory. They add that there has been an acceleration in the already increasing rate of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. “The disruption to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic has hit those with substance use disorder hard,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield, MD, said in a statement, according to Medscape.
The narcotic fentanyl is the primary driver of the increases in overdose deaths, an increase of 38.4% from the 12-month period leading up to June 2019 compared with the 12-month period leading up to May 2020. Ten western states reported an increase of 98% in synthetic opioid–involved deaths.
Overdose deaths involving cocaine and methamphetamine have also increased, by 26.5% and 34.8% respectively.
