Nearly 71,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year, a new record that predates the Covid-19 crisis, which the White House and many experts believe will further increase those deaths.
Preliminary numbers released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the trend is fueled by fentanyl and similar synthetic opioids, which accounted for 36,500 overdose deaths. Cocaine and methamphetamine deaths are also on the rise.
With billions of dollars dedicated to ending the opioid epidemic, policymakers expected overdose deaths to continue to decline, or at least on the plateau, after 2018 showed a decline for the first time in three decades. .
“We have to delay it a bit. Now we have to hold on again and not let this slip away from us, ”said Robert Anderson, who oversees CDC’s death data.
Undersecretary of Health Admiral Brett Giroir called the news “a very disturbing trend.”
“We understand that there is an extraordinary amount of work to be done, especially now that we are also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that could dramatically affect our nation’s mental health and substance use risk,” Giroir said in a statement.
Initially fueled by prescription opioid pain relievers, the overdose crisis in the United States “has changed shape,” said Brendan Saloner, an addiction researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Users migrated first to heroin and then to fentanyl, a cheaper and stronger drug that displaced heroin in many drug markets.
With more than 30 states showing increasing overdose deaths in the new data, Saloner said, “I see a map of despair.”
A small bright spot: A group of states in the Northeast (Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island) experienced a decline. These are states that have demonstrated their commitment to preventing overdoses among active drug users and having people receive treatment when they’re ready, Saloner noted.
“We definitely shouldn’t give up,” agreed Katherine Keyes of Columbia University. “Some states are showing remarkable successes.”
What lies ahead With public health efforts focused on the pandemic, the prospects may seem bleak. But access to opioid addiction treatment medications has improved somewhat, with some government restrictions alleviating buprenorphine and methadone. Evidence shows that these medications help people stay healthy.
The pandemic may have temporarily disrupted China’s illicit fentanyl supply, said Bryce Pardo, a drug policy researcher at the Rand Corporation, but that temporary shortage of supply would not be enough for the overdoses to change.
The pandemic is likely creating more demand among users, many experts said.
“People feel much more despair, anxiety and uprooting,” said Saloner. “That leads to more problematic drug use and an increased risk of overdose.”
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