XPost: alt.drugs.heroin, alt.america, sac.politics
XPost: alt.politics.republicans, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1016029270/drug-overdoses-killed-a-record- number-of-americans-in-2020-jumping-by-nearly-30

More than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. last year — a record number that reflects a rise of nearly 30% from 2019, according to
new data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials said the increase was driven by the lethal prevalence of
fentanyl as well as pandemic-related stressors and problems in accessing
care.

"This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told NPR.

The data is provisional as states are still reporting their tallies to the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. But even with some data not
yet complete, the numbers tell a dire story.

Ten states are predicted to have at least a 40% rise in drug overdose
deaths from the previous 12-month span, according to the CDC: Vermont, Kentucky, South Carolina, West Virginia, Louisiana, California, Tennessee, Nebraska, Arkansas and Virginia.

Volkow, whose agency is part of the National Institutes of Health, calls
the data "chilling." It's another sign, she said, that both the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis are whipsawing the country with deadly
effects.

"This has been an incredibly uncertain and stressful time for many people,
and we are seeing an increase in drug consumption, difficulty in accessing lifesaving treatments for substance use disorders and a tragic rise in
overdose deaths," Volkow said.

She added that people between the ages of 35 and 44 accounted for the
highest number of deaths.

While the provisional data doesn't provide a breakdown by race and
ethnicity, other recent studies suggest that at least in Philadelphia and California, the sharpest rise in overdose fatalities last year was among
Black residents. And other studies have shown that even before the
pandemic, overdose rates in Black communities were rising much faster than among white Americans.

Drug overdoses accounted for roughly one-quarter as many deaths as COVID-
19 did in 2020, using the CDC's number of 375,000 pandemic deaths last
year.

The provisional 93,331 U.S. drug overdose deaths are a sharp increase from
the 72,151 deaths estimated in 2019. Deaths in 2020 from opioids alone —
69,710 — nearly eclipsed the total number of fatal overdoses in the
previous year, although deaths involving other drugs such as
methamphetamine and cocaine also contributed to the increase.

It's urgent, Volkow said, for governments and agencies to widen access to treatment for people who are suffering from substance use disorders.

As NPR's Brian Mann reported last month, "If current trends continue,
illicit drugs will soon kill more Americans every day than COVID-19."

Before 2016, more Americans died from heroin overdoses annually than from powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, according to the CDC. But the number of lives lost to overdoses from synthetic opioids has soared since
then.

Roughly 57,000 people died from synthetic opioids (predominantly fentanyl)
last year, compared with around 13,000 people who died from heroin
overdoses.

Fentanyl's properties are similar to morphine — but it's "50 to 100 times
more potent," according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is
also frequently cut into other illegal drugs, including cocaine. That
dangerous trend has triggered outreach efforts to train people in using naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose.

The federal government has been taking steps to address drug addiction and overdoses, said Chuck Ingoglia, CEO of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing.

"Congress recently has appropriated lots of new dollars to try to address this," he said. "And it's been interesting to see that the Biden-Harris administration is really prioritizing the full continuum of interventions, everything from harm reduction to increased treatment capacity."

He said the House appropriations bill also includes funding for syringe exchange programs, which he said is the first time the federal government
has explicitly called for this "vital component of harm reduction interventions." But unless there is long-term funding to create a system
to address drug addiction, Ingoglia said, it may be hard to prevent
overdoses in the long run.

NPR health correspondent Rhitu Chatterjee contributed to this report.



--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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