Fentanyl Overdose Death Rates More Than Tripled in Five Years
- Overdose death rates also soared for methamphetamine, cocaine
- CDC report shows growing crisis exacerbated by the pandemic
Photos of fentanyl victims on display at The Faces of Fentanyl Memorial at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images
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Drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl more than tripled in the US from 2016 to 2021, a grim marker in the escalation of the deadly opioid epidemic that worsened during the rise of Covid-19.
Age-adjusted fentanyl death rates rose to nearly 22 per 100,000 population in 2021, and the increase was most pronounced from 2019 to 2021, according to a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics. Overdose death rates for methamphetamine and cocaine also rose over the same time period, quadrupling and doubling respectively.