Drug overdose deaths top 100,000 annually for the first time

 

America's drug epidemic is the deadliest it has ever been, new federal data suggests.   More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States during the 12-month period ending April 2021, according to provisional data published last week by the CDC.   That's a new record high, with overdose deaths jumping 28.5% from the same period a year earlier -- and nearly doubling over the past five years.   Opioids continue to be the driving cause of drug overdose deaths. Synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, caused nearly two-thirds (64%) of all drug overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending April 2021, up 49% from the year before, the CDC's 's National Center for Health Statistics found.   The Covid-19 pandemic and the rise in use of fentanyl have both been key contributors to the rising overdose death toll, experts say.   The latest provisional data on drug overdose deaths captures those occurring in May 2020 through April 2021. Covid-19 killed about 509,000 people in that same timeframe, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.   "What we're seeing are the effects of these patterns of crisis and the appearance of more dangerous drugs at much lower prices," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNN. "In a crisis of this magnitude, those already taking drugs may take higher amounts and those in recovery may relapse. It's a phenomenon we've seen and perhaps could have predicted."   But the rise of fentanyl, a stronger and faster-acting drug than natural opiates, has made those effects even more deadly, Volkow said.