In 2021, there will be 106,699 drug overdose fatalities in the United States, a 16% rise over 2020, according to the CDC’s final study released this week.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, is driving the increase. The number of fatal drug overdoses containing fentanyl increased by 22% in 2021, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, heroin overdoses plummeted by 32%.
Previously, the CDC estimated that as many as 107,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, but after studying death statistics, they reduced this estimate slightly downward.
In 2022, the influx of fentanyl entering the United States has not diminished.
This Monday, the DEA revealed that it had confiscated 379 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl this year, including 50,6 million counterfeit pills containing fentanyl and 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder.
This year, the DEA confiscated 50,6 million counterfeit tablets containing fentanyl.
In 2021, there was an increase in cocaine and other stimulant overdose deaths.
The rise in drug overdose deaths in 2021 contributed to a 25-year low in US life expectancy last year, the CDC reported separately on Thursday. The pandemic of coronavirus was the other major contributor to the decline in life expectancy.
»In 2021, drug overdose deaths surpassed 106,000, according to the CDC’s final report«