- Opioid deaths in America reached new highs last year, as Americans found themselves isolated and increasingly out of work. More than 87,000 Americans were killed in fatal overdoses leading up to September 2020, a 29 percent increase from the previous year. The biggest spike occurred in April and May 2020, just after lockdowns began in large swaths of the country. [Axios / Bryan Walsh]
- A report on Cook County on Illinois’s opioid epidemic concluded the increased overdoses likely came from a variety of factors, including changes in supply. Support services and naloxone distribution centers also have had trouble getting help for people who overdose. [US News & World Report / Maryann Mason]
- Fentanyl use is spreading. The synthetic opioid has a much higher potency than traditional heroin varieties, and is far deadlier. It was at first localized in the Northeast, but has since become widely used across the country. [The Economist]
- Fentanyl is deadliest when laced with stimulants like cocaine or methamphetamine. While opioid deaths used to accumulate in predominantly White suburban areas, the highest increase in death from opioids has more recently been among Black Americans. [New York Times / Abby Goodnough]
- All this comes as a tool that the federal government has used in the nationwide crackdown on opioids may soon lose congressional backing. [Associated Press / Michael Balsamo]
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