Everything is gone to the extreme and beyond the control stage in the United States of America. Rampage of coronavirus, a moment of Block Lives Matter, and now it is drug overuse in the US. Drug overdose is one of the top 10 reasons for deaths happened in the US. The country reaches a grim milestone of 100,000 drug overdose deaths for the first time in 12 months period from April 2020 to April 2021. This is the highest ever number of drug overuse deaths in any year. People in the US and former President Donald Trump have blamed China for coronavirus but whom they pointed out for drug overdose deaths in the US.
US Centre for disease control and prevention said it is around a 29% increase from the previous year. Most of the deaths came from overdoses of synthetic opioids, including fentanyl. About three-quarters of the total were overdoses from opioids, which rose 35%, killing 207 American citizens on average. Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid that can be 100 times as potent as morphine. Vermont saw the highest increase at nearly 70% followed by West Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana at more than 50%. Medical experts believed that deaths increased in states where a lot of people don’t have work or have low wages. People all over the country lost jobs because of the covid-19 pandemic, were cut off from their social networks, and forced into limbo.
The overlap of the overdose epidemic and the covid-19 pandemic also lowered life expectancy. In the year 2020, life expectancy has dropped biggest since WWII. Deaths due to drugs have increased nearly 140% from 2000 to 2014. Consecutive lockdowns because of covid-19 left drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment. Germany has just 1.7 drug overuse deaths per 100,000 people whereas Norway has recorded the highest total in Europe five per 100,000 people. The US has recorded 21.1 deaths which is four times that of Norway.
Comments