Black Americans suffered a jump in drug overdose deaths during COVID-19 pandemic, found a new study.
Researchers from the University of California, Los Angelesanalyze publicly available data to find the racial breakdown of the record overdose jump in 2020 and identify which groups have been most affected.
The research team found that black Americans suffered a 49% increase in deaths per 100,000 residents between 2019 and 2020, to 36.8 from 24.7.
Black Americans now outnumbered white Americans in overdose deaths, lagging behind only Indians.
Black Americans (yellows) suffered a 49% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2019 to 2020, the highest in each group. Each race group has increased by 25% or more (dashed line indicates the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic)
Black Americans (yellow) surpassed white Americans (grays) in opioid deaths per 100,000 population for the first time since 2001 in 2020, as the racial group bore the brunt of record opioid growth
“In this cross-sectional study, we observed that blacks had the largest percentage increase in overdose mortality in 2020, outpacing the percentage of whites for the first time since 1999,” the researchers wrote.
The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatrycollected data from the distant 1999.
Drug overdose has long been a problem in the United States, but the problem reached its peak during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that a record 104,000 Americans died from an overdose between September 2020 and 2021.
Opioids and mainly synthetic opioids such as fentanyl account for about 75 percent of these deaths.
The issue has long been linked to white Americans in the Appalachians and the southern United States. Whites and Indians were far ahead of blacks and Latinos until 2016, when deaths among black Americans began to rise.
In 2019, black and white Americans are linked to each other with 25 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents.
However, black Americans have made a big leap ahead of any other racial demographics from 2019 to 2020.
Native Americans, who still suffer the heaviest burden of drug overdoses with more than 40 deaths per 100,000 population in 2020, saw the second-largest increase of about 43 percent.
Hispanics are not affected as much as other groups in the overdose crisis have also risen sharply in recent years, with deaths jumping 40 percent.
However, with only 16 deaths per 100,000, Hispanics still suffer from the lowest proportion of drug overdoses in their population.
White Americans suffer from 31.6 deaths per 100,000 population, which is a staggering total, and while the 26 percent increase in just one year is still large, it is fading compared to other groups.
Data on Americans of Asian descent are not included in the study. Researchers have not indicated whether this is the case because the racial group usually faces a lower total number of overdoses than others.
“Drug overdose mortality is increasingly becoming a problem of racial justice in the United States. “Our results show that drug overdose mortality has escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the researchers wrote about the differences suffered by racial groups.
Anxious jumps have been observed in every racial group included in the study, which signals a national trend that has plagued the nation in recent years.
Before 2020, the only time a racial group reported an increase in overdose deaths of more than 25 percent was black Americans in 2016.
In 2020, all four categories reached this height.
There are several factors that are thought to be causing this jump. First, overuse of opioids, a problem since the 1990s, has increased many people’s addiction to drugs.
Although opioids are often needed to manage pain, they can be dangerous and easily addictive if abused or overused. Opioids account for the majority of drug overdose deaths in America
Opioids are safe to use in moderation and are the most effective painkillers. For some people, opioids are a must for dealing with pain and going through daily life.
In many cases, drugs are overused and prescribed, which has led many to become addicted to highly addictive drugs.
When people addicted to drugs run out of prescriptions, they often turn to illegal versions of the drugs, which is another problem.
Although all black marker drugs are dangerous, the rise of synthetic opioids such as fentanyl has become a major problem.
“The growing toxicity of drug supplies is linked to increased mortality from recent imprisonment as a risk factor for mortality from overdose,” the researchers wrote.
The pandemic ruled out these problems, as many were left socially isolated – increasing the risk of drug use – and some who were on treatment were interrupted by blockages in the beginning, leading to relapse and overdose.