Ian Patrick, FISM News
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The national fentanyl crisis is worse than we had originally thought, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data released this month.
The latest Vital Statistics Rapid Release report from the CDC shows that “age-adjusted drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine increased” from 2016 to 2021.
When specifically looking at fentanyl, the death rate increased “from 5.7 per 100,000 standard population in 2016 to 21.6 in 2021, with a 55.0% increase from 2019 (11.2) to 2020 (17.4), and a 24.1% increase from 2020 to 2021 (21.6).”
“The rate of drug overdose deaths increased by 279% for drug overdoses involving fentanyl during the study period,” the report stated.
New CDC report on OD trends in US 2016 to 2021 🧵
– The US fentanyl-involved OD death rate is 21.6 per 100,000, a rate that more than TRIPLED in just 5 yrs
– Methamphetamine-involved OD death rate more than quadrupled,
– Cocaine rate more than doubled🔗https://t.co/KJriJrmVPQ pic.twitter.com/B3i19frEIF
— Sheila Vakharia PhD MSW (@MyHarmReduction) May 3, 2023
The data also shows that death rates due to fentanyl were highest in younger age groups. Those aged 25-34 saw a 40.8 death rate while those aged 35 – 44 saw a 43.5 death rate, both staggeringly high numbers.
Broken down by race demographics, fentanyl also proved to be the worst offender of overdose deaths in every category. People of American-Indian and Alaskan Native descent had the highest death rate at 33.1, followed by non-Hispanic black people at 31.3 and non-Hispanic white people at 24.6.
When looking at gender comparisons, males had a 31.3 death rate from the illicit drug while the death rate for women was 11.9.
However, the report also shows that other drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine are becoming increasingly worrying problems as well.
“The rate of drug overdose deaths involving methamphetamine more than quadrupled, from 2.1 in 2016 to 9.6 in 2021,” according to the report. Similarly, drug overdose death rates “involving cocaine more than doubled, from 3.5 in 2016 to 7.9 per 100,000 in 2021.”
Republicans pointed to the statistics as further proof of how the border crisis is causing long-reaching effects even in communities far from the southern border.
“Joe Biden’s open border policies are dangerous,” Florida Senator Rick Scott tweeted alongside a link to the statistics. “I’m fighting every day to secure our border and put an end to the Democrats’ radical agenda!”
Florida Senator Marco Rubio said that the statistics are part of the “man-made crisis at the Southern border,” and that “American families are paying the price.”