{"id":37670,"date":"2021-07-14T23:17:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T06:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37670"},"modified":"2021-07-14T23:17:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T06:17:58","slug":"us-drug-overdose-deaths-rose-to-record-93000-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=37670","title":{"rendered":"US drug overdose deaths rose to record 93,000 last year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. drug overdose deaths hit a new record of more than 93,000 last year as the opioid epidemic continued during the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention documented 93,331 overdose deaths in 2020 in an almost 30 percent jump from the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>Opioid overdoses made up the bulk of the deaths, at around 69,000. The synthetic opioid fentanyl has driven much of the crisis.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Background:\u00a0<\/strong>The surge in drug overdose deaths represents a setback after overdose fatalities fell slightly in 2018 for the first time in decades.\u00a0The increase came amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased isolation and stretched and redirected health care resources to fight the virus.<\/p>\n<p>A bankruptcy plan for Purdue Pharma, a company at the center of the opioid crisis, has the potential to provide additional funds to combat the crisis. Fifteen states\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/ayssrvbzlmmncvcmnyhllnsslbngmbmwwplzvtgmkdkdhl_gcrcrrgygdctytymmmtr.html?a=&amp;b=40699\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/click1.email.thehill.com\/ayssrvbzlmmncvcmnyhllnsslbngmbmwwplzvtgmkdkdhl_gcrcrrgygdctytymmmtr.html?a%3D%26b%3D40699&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1626410050900000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEJZZr1PCo7mwgp7iU5VsKIp6tCqw\">last week<\/a>\u00a0agreed to a $4.5 billion settlement deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. drug overdose deaths hit a&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37671,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37670\/revisions\/37671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}