Two men smoke fentanyl in an alley in Los Angeles on April 18, 2022. The latest federal data show more than 109,000 drug deaths in 2022, many from fentanyl.
Jae C. Hong/AP
Hebrews 12:11 “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.
Important Takeaways:
- U.S. drug overdose deaths hit a record in 2022 as some states see a big surge
- Drug deaths nationwide hit a new record in 2022. 109,680 people died as the fentanyl crisis continued to deepen, according to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Eight states saw drug deaths continue to surge by nine percent or more, with the greatest increases of 21 percent coming in Washington state and Wyoming.
- Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said it’s troubling that deaths continue to rise despite the end of disruptions linked to the COVID pandemic.
- “That’s a very, very high level of overdose deaths,” Volkow told NPR.
- “One could have expected that as many of the challenges imposed by the COVID pandemic were resolved, we would see a deep dive in the number of overdose deaths. It’s concerning we have not seen that.”
- A major study from the medical journal the Lancet last year predicted opioid-fentanyl drug deaths will remain high, claiming another 1.2 million lives in the U.S. by the end of this decade.
- “I am not particularly optimistic for the future,” said Jonathan Caulkins, an addiction policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University.
- “We have multiple millions of people with opioid use disorder and that’s not something you can simply make go away. We are as a country in for bad times for years to come.”
- Volkow, head of NIDA, suggested major policy changes could begin to reduce opioid-fentanyl deaths, but she acknowledged progress has been slow.
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