Drug overdoses rising as opioid crisis gets worse

More Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016 than the number of Americans who died during the entirety of the Vietnam War, and nearly two-thirds of those deaths involved opioids.

A new report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the number of opioid-related overdoses rose by nearly 28 percent between 2015 and 2016. In 2016, 63,632 Americans died of drug overdoses.

About two-thirds of those overdose deaths were caused by opioids, CDC said. A little under a third were caused by prescription opioids, a quarter by heroin, and about a third by synthetic opioids other than methadone — most of which were likely caused by fentanyl, an extremely potent synthetic opioid mostly manufactured in China.

“The ongoing and worsening drug overdose epidemic requires immediate attention and action,” wrote CDC epidemiologists Puja Seth, Lawrence Scholl, Rose Rudd and Sarah Bacon.

The numbers show that the epidemic gripping America is getting worse, and suggest that what had been a crisis that mainly struck white Americans in rural and exurban areas is now killing thousands of black and Hispanic-Americans in urban settings.

Overdose deaths in large metropolitan areas jumped by more than a third. Among African-Americans, the number of opioid overdoses rose by more than half. Among whites, overdose deaths rose by more than a quarter. Overdoses killed 33,450 in 2016.

In Washington, D.C., alone, overdose deaths doubled between 2015 and 2016, the CDC data found. Opioid death rates are highest in West Virginia, where overdoses killed 43 in every 100,000 residents. New Hampshire and Ohio had overdose rates north of 30 per 100,000 residents, among the 31 states that reported their data to CDC.

“No area of the United States is exempt from this epidemic,” said Anne Schuchat, CDC’s principal deputy director. “We all know a friend, family member or loved one devastated by opioids.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/380819-drug-overdoses-rising-as-opioid-crisis-gets-worse