Annual drug overdose deaths have reached another record high in the United States as deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surge to unprecedented levels.
Highlights
- An estimated 105,752 people died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending October 2021.
- About two-thirds of those deaths involved synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, a stronger and faster-acting drug than natural opiates.
- Overdose deaths involving these drugs have nearly doubled over the past two years.
- “Fentanyl, even at very, very small quantities, is lethal for most people,” says a professor at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
- “It’s just an incredibly potent opioid,” she says.
- The statistics were published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics on Wednesday.