Fueled by the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase in fentanyl use, the US drug epidemic exploded while Americans were locked down. More than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the US during the 12-month period ending April 2021.
From May 2020 through April 2021, more than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the US, according to provisional data released Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a horrible new record for drug overdose deaths — a near-30% rise from the same period a year earlier and a near-doubling over the past five years. The drug epidemic grew in tandem with the Covid-19 pandemic, which claimed about 509,000 deaths in the same period. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl — a painkiller 50-100 times more potent than morphine — accounted for the bulk of those drug overdose deaths: around 64,000. The pandemic played a role. “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,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNN. Enough fentanyl to kill 333 million people. Read this line from CNN’s report: The US government has seized enough fentanyl this year to give every American a lethal dose, Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram said Wednesday at a White House press briefing, calling the overdose epidemic in the US “a national crisis” that “knows no geographical boundaries, and it continues to get worse.” Deadly fakes that look like prescription pills. Illegal drugs are often made to look like prescription pills, available online and sold through social media, according to a US Drug Enforcement Administration warning in September.
