100,000 Americans Have Died of Overdose
Georgia Has Seen 36.3 % Increase in Deaths in One Year
The Questions Are: When Will It End and How Will Government Leaders Respond?
The U.S. Substance Use Disorder Epidemic has reached another tragic milestone as the CDC announced more than 100,000 people had died of overdoses between April 2020 and April 2021. This is the first time that drug-related deaths have reached six figures in any 12-month period.
- That’s more than double the number of such deaths in 2015, and it’s a 28.5% increase from the same time period a year earlier.
- Georgia has experienced a 36.3 % rise in overdose deaths this past year placing our state among the deadliest states
- Georgia overdoses were 1,530 in 2019/2020 increasing to 2,086 in 2020/2021
- Opioids are the leading cause of overdose deaths; they are linked to the illicit fentanyl replacing heroin in illegal drug markets nationwide. Opioids are now responsible for three-quarters of drug overdose deaths.
- Deaths from methamphetamine and cocaine, both stimulant drugs, also increased
There are at least two explanations for the increase:
- the COVID-19 pandemic. The CDC reported only five months ago that more than 93,000 overdose deaths took place in 2020, itself a record. The newer report marks an acceleration in overdose deaths after April 2020 once pandemic restrictions took hold.
- increasingly lethal drug supply fentanyl and methamphetamine appear to have spread nationwide in the last five years which has exposed more people to more potent, more dangerous, substances
“As we continue to make strides to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot overlook the Substance Use Disorder epidemic which has touched families and communities across Georgia,” said Neil Campbell, Executive Director of the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse, “If you want to see deaths comes down, you have to make it much easier for someone who is in active addiction to access health care and enter into recovery.”
“It has to be easier to get treatment than to buy drugs. Right now, this is not the reality in Georgia. It is vital that Georgia’s elected officials and business leaders acknowledge what this is. It is a crisis. It is an epidemic,” said Jeff Breedlove, Chief of Policy for the Georgia Council on Substance Abuse.
“This is a tragic historic milestone. When will this end? How many deaths are acceptable in Georgia? 100,000 overdose deaths in just one year are more than deaths from car crashes and gun fatalities combined. Overdose deaths have more than doubled since 2015,” said Campbell.
“The questions are serious – when will the deaths end and what are Georgia’s elected officials going to do now that we have these historically deadly numbers. The time is now for bold transformational change and funding. Everyone understands the reality of a balanced budget, but not all items in budget are balanced – Georgia is facing a deadly epidemic killing more people than anything else – we must get serious, about saving lives” said Breedlove.
