Trendspotting: Drug Overdose Deaths Continue Their Relentless Rise

NewsWire: 5/19/22

• Drug overdose deaths topped 107,000 in 2021, according to preliminary data. The continued rise was driven by fentanyl and marks yet another new record. (The Wall Street Journal)
  
• NH: U.S. drug overdose deaths rose yet again to record-breaking levels in 2021, nearing 108,000. This provisional total marks the first time the annual count of overdose deaths has exceeded 100K. It reflects a 15% YoY increase and translates to roughly one overdose death every 5 minutes.

• Deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids exceeded 71,000, up 23% from the year before. This means that synthetic opioids now account for two-thirds of all overdose deaths. The CDC also noted increases in deaths involving stimulants like meth (+34% to nearly 33,000) and cocaine (+23% to around 24,500). 
• Since the 1970s, the number of drug overdoses has increased nearly every year. Since fentanyl is a fine powder, it’s easy to cut into other drugs--and few, if any, producers are able to measure with any precision how much they're mixing in. (It takes only 2 mg of fentanyl to overdose.) Cutting by producers and distributors has greatly increased the lethality of the drug supply. Of the 1M+ overdose deaths since 2000, more than half have occurred in the past seven years.

• As fentanyl makes its way into everything from street drugs to fake prescription pills, more casual users are getting snared in its deadly grip. (See “Fentanyl Epidemic Accelerates.") A recent study led by researchers at New York University found that more than 2M fake pills containing fentanyl were seized by law enforcement authorities in Q4 2021 alone, compared to just 42,000 in Q1 2018. A substantial share of these pills were marketed as OxyContin, Xanax, and Adderall.
• The proliferation of fentanyl-laced pills explains why the overdose crisis has begun to reach teenagers, who have long been insulated from the increases seen among adults. In 2020, after remaining stable for a decade, the number of teens dying from overdoses rose dramatically and continued to rise in 2021. This has not been due to greater numbers of teens using drugs, but by increased exposure to fentanyl.
• It's the same story across the nation. The majority of states experienced double-digit increases in overdose deaths last year, with a broad swath of the South seeing drug deaths rise +25% to +30%. Alaska saw the biggest spike of all (+75%).  These surges are all thought to be the result of a sharp increase in the supply of fentanyl, rather than an increase in the number of drug users.