Particle.news
Download on the App Store
5 ARTICLES
·
last yr.

U.S. Drug Overdose Deaths Reach Record High in 2022, CDC Reports

Nearly 108,000 Americans lost their lives to drug overdoses last year, with fentanyl driving the surge.

Image
Paraphernalia for smoking and injecting drugs is seen after it was found during a police search on April 19, 2017, in Huntington, West Virginia. Huntington, the city in the northwest corner of West Virginia, bordering Kentucky, has been portrayed as the epicenter of the opioid crisis. On August 15, 2016, from 3:00 pm to 9:00 pm, 28 people in the city overdosed on heroin laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid far more powerful and dangerous than heroin. The economic incentives are powerful: one kilogram of fentanyl costs $5,000, which can make a million tablets sold at $20 each for a gain of $20 million. "This epidemic doesn't discriminate," Huntington Mayor Steve Williams said. "Our youngest overdose was 12 years old. The oldest was 77." / AFP PHOTO / Brendan Smialowski / TO GO WITH AFP STORY by Heather SCOTT, US-health-drugs-WestVirginia (Photo credit should read BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Image

Overview

  • Drug overdose deaths in the U.S. hit a new record in 2022, with 107,941 fatalities reported.
  • Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids continue to fuel the rise in overdose deaths, with deaths involving cocaine and methamphetamine also increasing.
  • The overdose death rate among men rose, while it declined for women for the first time in five years.
  • American Indian and Alaska Native populations saw the largest increase in overdose death rates.
  • Efforts to combat the crisis include the deployment of anti-overdose devices and overdose prevention centers.