- Alexander Bencore
US Overdose Deaths Hit Record 93,000 in Pandemic Last Year
Despite massive public awareness campaigns about the dangers of opiates, tobacco, and alcohol, American's problems with deadly drugs continues to get worse (leaving sugar off the list this one time).
The numbers are already staggering, but 2020 saw new levels of tragedy: 93,000 Americans overdosed. That incredible and sad number represents a 29% increase over the previous year.
"This is a staggering loss of human life," said Brandon Marshall, a Brown University public health researcher who tracks overdose trends.
The nation was already struggling with its worst overdose epidemic but clearly “COVID has greatly exacerbated the crisis,” he added.
“It’s huge, it’s historic, it’s unheard of, unprecedented, and a real shame,” said Daniel Ciccarone, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies heroin markets. “It’s a complete shame.” [as reported in the NY Times]
[It bears repeating that no overdose deaths have ever been reported in the entire 10,000 year relationship that humans have maintained with The Plant AND that cannabis has been found to be a solution to over-use of other drugs]
An infuriating fact: Fentanyl was involved in more than 60% of the overdose deaths last year.
CDC data suggests.
"What’s really driving the surge in overdoses is this increasingly poisoned drug supply,” said Shannon Monnat, an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University who researches geographic patterns in overdoses.
"Nearly all of this increase is fentanyl contamination in some way. Heroin is contaminated. Cocaine is contaminated. Methamphetamine is contaminated."