In ongoing reporting on data about drug abuse, the Washington Post (12/12, Zezima) reports that fresh data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that “deaths from cocaine sharply increased from 2011 to 2016 across the United States, adding another dimension to a crisis of fatal overdoses that has primarily been driven by opioids.” Cocaine overdose deaths were up “about 18 percent each year during the five-year period,” while “the data also showed a staggering rise in the number of deaths from fentanyl, with deaths from the powerful synthetic opioid increasing about 113 percent each year from 2013 to 2016.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70,000 people died of drug overdoses last year.
The AP (12/11, Stobbe) reports that the latest CDC data also show “a bigger share of U.S. drug overdose deaths are being caused by methamphetamine,” with that drug’s overdose death toll tripling in the period between 2011 and 2016, “while the percentage of overdose deaths involving meth grew from less than 5 percent to nearly 11 percent.”
Related Links:
— “Cocaine deaths increase amid ongoing national opioid crisis, “Katie Zezima, The Washington Post, December 12, 2018.