Nearly 10,000 Americans still die of drug overdoses every month, figures show.
An update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that there were up to 109,940 drug overdose deaths in the year to February, which the agency said was likely “an underestimate.”
That’s the equivalent of 9,161 deaths per month, which experts warned was crashing and catching fire almost every day with a plane full of Americans.
Fentanyl was the leading cause of death, behind about eight in ten cases. It was followed by methamphetamines, cocaine, and prescription opioids.
The map above shows the percent change in overdose deaths by state between February 2022 and February 2023. Washington, Maine, and Nevada were the states with the strongest increases
Downtown Philadelphia has long been a magnet for drug users looking for their next high, but the scale of the problems caused by xylazine is shocking, even to locals who have become accustomed to such disturbing scenes
Pictured above is a man on the streets of San Francisco during the US drug crisis
There are serious concerns about a deadly new cocktail of fentanyl and an animal tranquilizer – xylazine – emerging in US drug supplies.
President Joe Biden this week announced a plan to reduce overdose deaths from fentanyl and xylazine, but set himself the modest goal of a 15 percent reduction by 2025.
America’s overdose crisis has exploded since the 2010s, when fentanyl first began to flood the illicit drug supply.
It’s up to 50 times more potent than heroin and can help drug users achieve a more intense high, but it’s also toxic, with just two milligrams capable of killing an adult.
Overdose deaths increased during the Covid pandemic due to concerns about job preservation and rising mental health issues.
The number of fatalities began to decline in early 2022, which the White House announced as a sign that the US was “overcoming” the crisis.
But health scientists have taken a more skeptical tone, with one warning that this could be just a “wiggle” before deaths pick up again.
Nationally, California recorded the most drug overdose fatalities in the year to February 2023 with 11,047.
The second highest number was recorded in Florida (7,733), followed by Texas (5,345), Pennsylvania (5,209), and Ohio (5,140).
At the other end of the scale was South Dakota, which had only 87 drug overdose deaths recorded during the year to February.
Wyoming had the second lowest number (123), while North Dakota (144) and Montana (184) also recorded fewer than 200 overdose deaths.
Overall, 33 of the 50 states recorded fewer overdose deaths compared to the same period last year.
Washington, Maine and Nevada saw the strongest increases in overdose deaths at 21, 16 and 10 percent.
Based on preliminary figures, the number of overdose deaths in the year to February 2023 is expected to fall by 0.1 percent from the same time last year.
Earlier, Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), had heralded the rising overdose deaths as a sign that the US was “overcoming” the crisis.
The number of overdose deaths in the US is starting to decline, data shows, at about 9,160 per month. White House says this is a sign they are ‘beating’ the crisis
He said: “We’ve expanded treatment to millions of Americans, we’re improving access to naloxone to reverse overdoses, and we’re attacking the illicit fentanyl supply chain at every bottleneck.”
“As a result, about 19,000 people are still alive and can be present at the dinner table, at birthdays and at life’s most important moments.”
He added, “President Biden called on us to redouble our efforts to save even more lives so that we can overcome this crisis, and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Dr. Donald Burke, a health scientist at the University of Pittsburgh, sounded more skeptical. Washington Post“Anyone looking at this with historical trends in mind and a little stats in mind will probably say it’s not going to go down,”
| Rank | Stands | Overdose deaths | % change compared to February 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 5152 | California Florida Texas Pennsylvania Ohio North Carolina Tennessee Illinois New York (New York) Michigan New Jersey Washington Arizona Massachusetts Georgia Indiana Maryland Louisiana Virginia Kentucky south carolina Missouri Colorado Wisconsin Alabama Connecticut West Virginia Oregon Minnesota Nevada Oklahoma New Mexico Kansas Maine Mississippi Utah District of Colombia Arkansas Delaware New Hampshire Iowa Rhodes Island Idaho Hawaii Alaska Vermont Nebraska Montana North Dakota Wyoming South Dakota | 12,158 8,025 5,660 5,278 5,146 4.104 3,909 3,839 3,535 3,221 3,001 2,917 2,910 2,772 2,684 2,561 2,536 2,504 2,352 2,315 2,307 2,273 2,195 1,823 1,749 1,518 1,491 1,409 1,393 1,388 1,151 1,143 986 743 717 707 660 590 571 551 469 453 438 371 289 274 273 222 187 146 12387 | +1.2% -3.3% +10.6% -2.5% -4% -1.4% +0.6% -4.7% +6.7% +13.5% -4.7% -6.2% +23.9% +0.1% +3.2% +1.2% -11.6% -8.2% -7.6% -10.4% -3.4% +0.6% -0.5% -6.9% -5.8% +10.1% -3.2% -6.6% +14.5% +2.1% +12.4% +11.8% -9.3% +5.4% +16.8% -2.3% -3.1% +7.7% -9.9% +8.5% -0.4% -7.4% -5% +0.8% +1.8% +6.6% +5% +3.3% -1.6% +8.1% +12.8%-9.4% |