The opioid epidemic continues in the US, with the amount of overdose deaths reaching a new height of 108,000 in 2021. This is the second year in a row that deaths have surpassed 100,000.
New data has just been published by the CDC giving some insight on what drugs are causing the upswing. Fentanyl is the main culprit, but it’s the deadly concoction of meth or heroin mixed with fentanyl that is causing the most overdoses.
Meth has gotten cheaper and more potent over the years, and fentanyl continues to stream into the US from being made in Mexico with ingredients from China.
2020 saw a 30% percent increase in overdose deaths, the largest increase ever in a single year. Much of this is thought to be due to the pandemic’s insistence on solitude and closings of harm reduction institutions across the country. 2021’s increase was 15% from the year before, a smaller increase but still a concerning one in a year with less anomalies.
Since the 1970’s overdose deaths have increased in the country every single year except for 2018.
Read the original article at New York Times.