Deaths from drug overdoses rose almost 15% in the U.S. last year, topping 100,000 and setting another grim record, according to provisional data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
An estimated 107,622 died from drug overdose deaths in 2021, based on figures from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released Wednesday. The rate of increase did abate from 2020, when deaths soared 30%.
The data highlight the persistent nature of the drug epidemic in the country, even as the toll is obscured by coronavirus casualties — which are closing in on 1 million. In fact substance abuse rose dramatically in the first year of the COVID-19 crisis, causing the spike in overdoses in 2020.
