{"id":1472266,"date":"2022-05-11T18:44:44","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472266"},"modified":"2022-05-11T18:44:48","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T22:44:48","slug":"record-number-of-americans-died-from-drug-overdoses-in-2021-cdc-data-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/record-number-of-americans-died-from-drug-overdoses-in-2021-cdc-data-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Number Of Americans Died From Drug Overdoses in 2021, CDC Data Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Frecord-number-of-americans-died-from-drug-overdoses-in-2021-cdc-data-show%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1472266&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/50CA2309-C3BC-4268-8C8D-81553BFED270-scaled.jpeg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>A record number of Americans died from drug overdoses last year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n<p>Data from the CDC\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/nvss\/vsrr\/drug-overdose-data.htm\">National Vital Statistics System<\/a> for the year 2021 predicted that 107,622 Americans have died from drug overdoses. The data is not final, and could be under-reported because the data is not complete, but it would mark the largest number of Americans who have died from drug overdoses on record in a single year, and an increase of about 15% from 2020, when 93,655 people died from overdoses. Overdose deaths have also increased by about 50% since 2019 when around 72,000 people died of drug overdoses.<\/p>\n<p>California led the nation in total overdose deaths, with 11,704 predicted deaths for the year 2021. Florida came in second, with 8,171 predicted deaths. Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas all suffered more than 5,000 predicted deaths. North Carolina had over 4,000. Five states suffered more than 3,000 overdose deaths, 12 states had more than 2,000 deaths, and nine states had more than 1,000 deaths last year.<\/p>\n<p>California also led the nation in year-over-year increases, with about 2,100 more deaths in 2021 than in 2020. In terms of largest year-over-year percentage change, Alaska led the nation with a 75% increase over 2020. Nearly every state saw an increase in overdose deaths, except Wyoming, which saw no change, and Hawaii, which saw a net decrease of 1.8%.<\/p>\n<p>One drug policy experts cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a major reason behind the spike in overdose deaths.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pandemic really upended so many people\u2019s lives, especially people already living at the margins,\u201d Maritza Perez, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/11\/drug-overdose-deaths-2021-record-00031709\">Politico<\/a> Wednesday. \u201cPeople lost their jobs, they were isolated. These are all factors that increase problematic drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), called the CDC\u2019s numbers a \u201cdevastating milestone\u201d and \u201ctruly staggering.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deaths involving synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, were responsible for a large share of the deaths, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/05\/11\/us\/politics\/overdose-deaths-fentanyl-meth.html\">The\u00a0New York Times<\/a> reported. The number of deaths involving synthetic opioids rose from 58,000 to 71,000, while deaths associated with stimulants like methamphetamine rose from 25,000 to 33,000.<\/p>\n<p>The New York Times notes that fentanyl, which comes as a white powder, is becoming more prevalent because it can be mixed with other drugs, including other opioids like heroin, and pressed into counterfeit pills for other drugs.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/nida.nih.gov\/news-events\/news-releases\/2022\/03\/law-enforcement-seizures-of-pills-containing-fentanyl-increased-dramatically-between-2018-2021\">study<\/a> of illicit pills seized by law enforcement agencies, conducted by the NIDA, found that the number of illicit pills containing fentanyl saw a nearly fifty-fold increase between 2018 and 2021. The study found that about 290,000 pills were seized in 2018. That number increased to over 9,500,000 pills in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe net effect is that we have many more people, including those who use drugs occasionally and even adolescents, exposed to these potent substances that can cause someone to overdose even with a relatively small exposure,\u201d Volkow told the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/overdose-deaths-opioids-fentanyl-8cb302a70ddbb6a435f9e8fbb19f153b\">Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCompounding the tragedy, we have underused treatments that could help many people,\u201d Volkow added, according to Politico. \u201cWe must meet people where they are to prevent overdoses, reduce harm, and connect people to proven treatments to reduce drug use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A record number of Americans died from drug overdoses last year, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Data from the CDC\u2019s National Vital Statistics System<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":189,"featured_media":1482668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/189"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}