US breaks record 106,000 drug overdose deaths from November 2020 to 2021

The number of Americans who have died from drug overdoses has risen to another heartbreaking record, according to data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the CDC, approximately 106,854 Americans died of overdose from November 2020 to 2021. This is the sixth consecutive monthly report to break the all-time record, and the eighth in a row with over 100,000 reported deaths.

Opioids, and especially synthetic versions of the drug, such as fentanyl, are most responsible. More than 80,000 deaths are believed to be caused by opioids, of which about 70,000 are synthetic opioids.

America’s drug problem has spiraled out of control in recent years, and the rise of fentanyl has turned a crisis into a disaster. A depressing study published this week from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) also shows that drugs are causing a spike in deaths among young Americans.

Opioids (black) are responsible for approximately 80% of overdose deaths in the United States, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl (brown) are responsible for a large percentage of total opioid deaths.

The 106,000 figure is a slight increase from the 105,000 deaths recorded from October 2020 to 2021 in a report published last month. At the same time, there is an annual increase of 16%.

The drug overdose crisis, mostly associated with the opioid epidemic, has developed over the past two decades due to several factors.

Relationships between doctors and pharmaceutical companies are blamed for the rise in prescriptions for addictive painkillers, with many employees being laid off and turning to the black market to buy illegal versions.

Then, in early 2010, fentanyl began to appear. The synthetic opioid is mainly produced in Mexico, and officials fear it will be smuggled in bulk across the southern border.

A drug originally created to aid in the treatment of cancer patients, Fentanyl is cheap to manufacture and very potent, making it a favorite of illicit drug dealers who can use small quantities in drugs to mass-produce them at low cost.

However, even small amounts of fentanyl can cause an overdose, and as drug dealers often fail ethical standards, the United States experienced a number of deaths from the previously unknown drug in the mid-2010s.

Many also accused pharmacies of not having adequate guardrails to prevent people who want to abuse or sell drugs from infecting us.

People who become addicted to opioids, and some eventually die of overdoses, often become addicted by first using the drug legally as a pain reliever and forming an addiction.

Florida turned its attention to these pharmacies and sued CVS and Walgreens, two of the nation’s largest drugstore chains. The Walgreens lawsuit goes to court this week, with the first paying for a settlement of nearly half a billion dollars.

“Walgreens was the last line of defense in preventing the inappropriate distribution of opioids,” said Jim Webster, who serves as state attorney general in his keynote address.

“It was the entity that actually put opioids into the hands of opioid addicts and criminals.”

The number of youth who died from fentanyl overdose (grey line) has tripled since the start of the Covid pandemic (dashed line between 2019 and 2020). Scientists say this may be related to mixing the synthetic opioid with other drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

Appalachians have been hardest hit by the rise in drug overdose deaths in recent years. West Virginia leads by far in death rates, with 84.9 out of 100,000 deaths from overdose in a 12-month period.

Neighboring Tennessee (56.4 deaths per 100,000 population), Pennsylvania (56.4) and Kentucky (53.6) also round out the top four.

Nebraska (11.4), South Dakota (11.5), Alabama (13.8) and Iowa (13.9) are the countries with the lowest drug overdose deaths among their populations.

Each year, Alaska experienced the largest increase in deaths, with an increase of 80% to nearly 700 deaths.

Drug overdose deaths increased by 20 percent or more in 22 US states. Only three states saw declines in opioid deaths: New Hampshire (1% decrease), Hawaii (5%), and Wyoming (11%).

A study published Tuesday by UCLA researchers found that most reported increases in drug overdose deaths were among teens, with fentanyl killing nearly 1,000 American teens last year.

American blacks (yellows) surpassed American whites (grays) in opioid deaths per 100,000 population for the first time since 2001 in 2020, when the racial group saw a record increase in opioids.

Black Americans (yellows) recorded a 49% increase in drug overdose deaths between 2019 and 2020, the highest of any group. Each racial group experienced an increase of 25% or more (dotted line marks the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic)

The researchers found that 884 youth died from fentanyl overdoses, up from 680 in 2020 and 253 in 2019, in 2021, a more than threefold increase in just two years.

A highly potent synthetic opioid, of which a dose of two milligrams is sufficient to cause an overdose in some adults, is primarily responsible for the recent increase in opioid deaths in America.

It is estimated that 80,242 deaths over the 12-month period were due to opioids, of which 70,420 were attributed to synthetics such as fentanyl. Semi-synthetic opioids accounted for 13,643.

The next major cases were psychostimulants, which caused 32,476 deaths, followed by 23,908 deaths from cocaine and just under 10,000 deaths from heroin.

Black Americans have had the brunt of this latest drug overdose, according to a study published last month by UCLA researchers.

The research team found that between 2019 and 2020, Black Americans suffered 49 percent more deaths per 100,000 population, increasing from 24.7 to 36.8.

While drug overdose has long been associated with white Americans and remains devastating for that group, black Americans are now the race with the most deaths per capita in America after overtaking whites at the start of the year.