CDC: Fentanyl led 2021 spike in drug overdose deaths

The artificial opioid fentanyl prompted 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 individuals, the CDC reported. That was adopted by methamphetamine (9.6 deaths for each 100,000 individuals), 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 regularly from 2016 to 2021, with fentanyl main a fair 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 offers “a more in-depth analysis” of America’s rising drug habit drawback by analyzing the textual content of loss of life certificates slightly than medical analysis codes that always 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 research can be (to our data) the primary time we report charges of drug overdose deaths involving these particular medication by 5 race/Hispanic origin classes.

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

According to the CDC report, fentanyl has been the main explanation for overdose deaths since a minimum of 2016, and the hole between it and different medication has widened for the reason that 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 individuals) to 69,943 in 2021 (a fee of 21.6 deaths per 100,000 individuals).

While annual overdose deaths from methamphetamine and cocaine additionally rose extra sharply from 2019 to 2020 than in earlier years, fentanyl outpaced these will increase, the report discovered.