The number of drug and alcohol-related deaths rose from 788 in 2018 to 1,755 in 2021 among youth ages 15 to 19, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data tabulated by The Hill.
There have been numerous reports that some of this increase is due to fentanyl, as the number of adolescent deaths from taking this synthetic opioid increased more than twenty-fold between 2010 and 2021, from 38 to 884, according to a study the year 2022 emerges from the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The second leading cause of overdose deaths in this population is attributed to a class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines, which claimed 152 lives in 2021.
Fentanyl, which is now rampant in the underground counterfeit pill market, can cause a fatal overdose in much smaller amounts than less effective drugs, the note warned.
Largely due to its impact, the number of deaths in the United States doubled in six years from 52,404 in 2015 to 106,699 in 2021.
The deaths from this opioid reflect a larger crisis in child mortality that has taken the public health community by surprise, the text said.
He recalled how child mortality rates rose nearly 20 percent between 2019 and 2021, reversing a decade-long trend of falling rates among the very young, according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The number of deaths in this group is increasing at a rate not seen in at least half a century, an era that saw steady advances in preventing car accidents and disease.
The study authors attributed the increase to “man-made pathogens,” particularly weapons and drugs.
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