Drug Overdose Deaths

Republicans hope to save a lot of tax dollars by cutting Medicaid. Drug policy experts say as many as a million Americans in treatment for addiction could lose coverage.

As drug experts parse the data trying to understand the factors that could contribute to a sudden drop in overdose deaths, harm reductionists in western North Carolina work to stave off a possible spike in overdoses after the destruction brought by Hurricane Helene.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police held a news conference about how fentanyl is a growing problem in Mecklenburg County on Monday.

"There were 107,000 deaths [overdose] nationwide" last year, CMPD Lt. Sean Mitchell said. "In Charlotte, we had 213 deaths and 88% of those were tied to fentanyl.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts North Carolina will see a 43% jump in overdose deaths compared to 2020. Overdose deaths have spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 93,000 people died of a drug overdose in the U.S. last year, according to new CDC data. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids accounted primarily for the rise, which the pandemic exacerbated.

Researchers say cocaine, meth and other street drugs are increasingly contaminated with deadly synthetic opioids, contributing to a major spike in deaths.

Drug overdoses killed an estimated 72,000 people in the U.S. last year. A new report from the federal Centers for Disease Control also shows that deaths…