CDC: Fentanyl led 2021 spike in drug overdose deaths

The artificial opioid fentanyl brought on the best fee of drug overdose deaths in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mentioned Wednesday.

The age-adjusted fee of drug overdose deaths was highest for deaths involving fentanyl — 21.6 for each 100,000 folks, the CDC reported. That was adopted by methamphetamine (9.6 deaths for each 100,000 folks), cocaine (7.9), heroin (2.9), and oxycodone (1.5). That continues a development courting again to 2016, the report discovered.

The federal company famous that overdose deaths from fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine all elevated step by step from 2016 to 2021, with fentanyl main a good sharper spike after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Overdose deaths from heroin and oxycodone decreased over the identical interval.

The report gives “a more in-depth analysis” of America’s rising drug dependancy drawback by analyzing the textual content of dying certificates slightly than medical prognosis codes that usually omit any point out of drug abuse, mentioned CDC statistician Merianne Spencer.

“Males had higher rates of drug overdose deaths than females for all drugs analyzed in the study,” Ms. Spencer, the report’s creator, informed The Washington Times. “This examine can be (to our data) the primary time we report charges of drug overdose deaths involving these particular medicine by 5 race/Hispanic origin classes.

According to the examine, American Indians/Alaskan natives had the best fee of drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl (33.1 per 100,000) and methamphetamine (27.4) of any racial or ethnic group.

The examine additionally discovered fentanyl overdose dying charges have been highest in areas alongside the East Coast, starting from 23.7 to 32.2 for each 100,000 folks. Drug overdose deaths alongside the West Coast and within the Midwest extra typically concerned each fentanyl and methamphetamine, with a lot decrease fentanyl dying charges starting from 10.7 to fifteen.9 per 100,000 folks.

According to the CDC report, fentanyl has been the main reason for overdose deaths since at the least 2016, and the hole between it and different medicine has widened because the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.

Overdose deaths from fentanyl grew yearly from 18,499 in 2016 (a fee of 5.7 deaths for each 100,000 folks) to 69,943 in 2021 (a fee of 21.6 deaths per 100,000 folks).