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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