Deaths From Synthetic Opioids Doubled from 2015 to 2016

In 2016 , 63,632 people in the US died from a drug overdose , a newreportfrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded . And many more of those deaths were do by potent opioids obtained on the streets than in years past .

The CDC tally is a slight downgrade from apreliminary estimatereleased by the government activity last declination , which found there were 64,070 overdose deaths that year . But the overall finish remains true : Overdoses because of all categories of drug ( alcohol - related deaths are count separately ) get up from 2015 to 2016 , with the bombastic gains view among synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogs .

According to the new report , there was a roughly 21 per centum increase in the age - adjusted overdose end rate from 2015 . The 42,249 dying involve at least one opioid ( some expiry involved more than one drug ) and the 19,413 death involving a synthetic opioid other than methadone report for a 28 per centum and 100 percent increase from 2015 , severally . After synthetic opioids , the largest net increase ( 52 per centum ) was image with cocaine — there were 10,375 deaths from it in 2016 .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

“ The ongoing and exasperate drug overdose epidemic demand immediate tending and action , ” the generator of the report write . “ riotous access to data collect is need to understand emerging threats in local community and to tailor reception activities . ”

Since 1999 , and include the late issue , there have been over 600,000 overdose expiry in the US , with 351,000 of those deaths because of opioids . The authors say it ’s percipient now there have been three distinct wave of the opioid crisis . The first waving began in the nineties and primarily involved prescription painkiller , the 2d began around 2010 and was driven by diacetylmorphine use , and the third wave , driven by fentanyl analogs , started up around 2013 .

The generator note that fentanyl is now being fuse into other drugs , since it ’s often chintzy to acquire and sell . Dealers are cutting their diacetylmorphine or cocain with fentanyl to lengthen their supply , or marketing it as imitative opioid and benzodiazepine tablet .

William Duplessie

The report only has specific data on drug deaths from 31 res publica and Washington DC . And similar to the national picture , the largest growth were see with synthetic opioids . Twenty states had addition in the death pace from synthetics in 2015 , while DC in picky had its charge per unit more than triple .

Despitegrand promisesfrom the Trump judicature , it does n’t seem as though the opioid crisis will get near anytime soon . And it might even be defective than we imagine .

A studypublishedlast year suggests that these official story are still undercounting the death cost from opioids . It happen that after account for omissions on a dying certificate that leave out a specific drug , there might have been almost 25 percent more deaths from opioids than was estimated from 2008 to 2014 . For 2016 , that might amount to an extra 8,000 opioid deaths , the work ’s generator , Christopher J. Ruhm of the University of Virginia , toldthe Washington Post Thursday .

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