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THURSDAY, April 15, 2021 — There were more than 87,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States from October 2019 to September 2020, the highest of any one-year period since the nation’s opioid crisis began in the 1990s, preliminary government data shows.
The death toll was 29% higher than in the previous 12-month period and the increase was largely driven by Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, with stimulant drugs such as methamphetamine also playing a role, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
Whites in rural and suburban areas accounted for many of the deaths in the early years of the U.S. opioid epidemic, but the latest data shows Blacks being affected disproportionately.
“The highest increase in mortality from opioids, predominantly driven by fentanyl, is now among Black Americans,” National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow said at