During the coronavirus pandemic, drug overdose rates skyrocketed in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drug overdoses increased by 31% in the United States in 2020. The death rate rose most dramatically among blacks and Native Americans — rising 49% and 43%, respectively, in just one year.
Experts say much of this increase can be explained by the growing prevalence of fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid. The reporter Erin McCormick has examined how the drug became so widely available in the US and how its rise is rewriting the narrative of America’s opioid crisis.
People under the age of 24 have been particularly hard hit by this latest spate of overdoses, according to a Guardian analysis of 2020 federal data. In this age group, the number of accidental drug-related deaths increased by 50% in a single year – 7,337 young people died in 2020. It is a mother who has lived through this crisis first-hand Pearl Mendoza. she says Michael Safi how her 20-year-old son Daniel overdosed on fentanyl after a dealer sold him counterfeit Xanax pills on Snapchat.