Deaths due to drug overdose have topped a million for the first time since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began collecting data on the problem more than two decades ago.
A study released Thursday by the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the CDC, found that 932,364 people died in the U.S. from fatal overdoses from 1999 through 2020.
Separate preliminary data from the CDC shows another 100,000 drug deaths expected in 2021.
Unlike the COVID-19 pandemic, which hit elderly Americans hardest, researchers found drug deaths have risen fastest among the young and middle-aged adults struggling with addiction.
“Among adults aged 35–44, the age group with the highest rates, drug overdose deaths increased 33% from 2019 to 2020,” the report found. Men are also more vulnerable than women, it said.
Source: NPR
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/30/1069062738/more-than-a-million-americans-have-died-from-overdoses-during-the-opioid-epidemi
