More than 100,000/year

Drug overdose deaths in the USA are now the ~#7 leading cause of death with over 100,000 deaths per year.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2021/…

Drug overdoses are lumped in with “accidents” (a category which also includes car crashes and suicides) so you don’t see it in the “leading causes” chart directly, but if it were in a class of it’s own, it would be right there with diabetes–in a nation full of fat people.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm…

It is also a relatively recent phenomenon. Just 20 years ago, overdose deaths were less than 20,000 per year. But 20 years ago, rates were already 4X higher than they were in the “swinging” 70’s and “cocaine-fueled” 80’s:

https://nida.nih.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-…
https://www.cdc.gov/medicationsafety/pdfs/cdc_5538_ds1.pdf

Overdosed primarily kill younger people. Most deaths are recorded among younger adults from ages 25-55.
https://drugabusestatistics.org/drug-overdose-deaths/

There are a lot of reasons, but #1 is opioid addiction and specifically synthetics like fentanyl:

Fentanyl is a cheap, potent and incredibly addictive narcotic – far stronger than oxycodone or hydrocodone. Even a small amount of it can be deadly. However, many people who die from fentanyl overdose never realized they ingested fentanyl. The less expensive drug is being cut into cocaine or pressed into ‘fake’ pills to pad the profits of drug cartels.
https://www.wral.com/fentanyl-overdose-becomes-leading-cause…

From my place in the cheap seats, I suspect some form of legalization/decriminalization might be necessary. Portugal took that approach in 2001 in the midst of a heroin/HIV epidemic with overall positive results (if not without some negatives):

In Portugal, meanwhile, the drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the E.U. average and stands at one-fiftieth of the United States’. Its rate of HIV infection has dropped from 104.2 new cases per million in 2000 to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use.
https://time.com/longform/portugal-drug-use-decriminalizatio…

In any case, we’ve sadly done very little over the past decade as overdose deaths climbed from 20,000 to 40,000 to 60,000 to 100,000. These are numbers far in excess of suicides, homicides, car crashes, or any number of things in life where we try to reduce deaths.

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