CDC Confirms Nearly 107,000 Drug Overdose Deaths in 2021 as U.S. Life Expectancy Declines

Vanessa Etienne
·2 min read
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Drugs overdose
Drugs overdose

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Drug overdose deaths hit nearly 107,000 over the past year, according to federal data.

On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2021, the United States saw a 16% increase of drug overdose deaths, with nearly 106,699 deaths recorded. This increase follows the more than 92,000 recorded deaths in 2020.

The CDC'S final report also included the total deaths reported in 2021. The United States saw  more than 3.46 million deaths, 80,502 more than the previous year. Above the deaths from drug overdoses, COVID-19 was responsible for 416,893 deaths.

"These data are very tragic but not surprising," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, CNN reports. "The pandemic had a magnifying effect on an already-devastating overdose crisis, and exacerbated many of the stressors in society that make people more vulnerable to taking drugs."

"We also know that substance use is more dangerous than it has ever been, as fentanyl has continued to permeate the illicit drug supply, increasing the risk for overdoses among both people with substance use disorders as well as those who use drugs occasionally," Volkow added.

RELATED:  How Fentanyl Became One of the Biggest Causes of Drug Overdoses in the U.S.

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Additionally, life expectancy for the United States has experienced an alarming decline. In 2021, life expectancy dropped to 76.4 years at birth, down from 77 in 2020, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. While that appears to be a small decline, a wealthy country like the United States is expected to see a steady rise in life expectancy.

Meanwhile, every age group from children to seniors 85 and older saw a rise in death rates.

"This one, it's sort of across-the-board bad news," Eileen Crimmins, a professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California who studies life expectancy around the world, told The Washington Post. "We've gone since 1996 without improving. That's incredible, given how much we've learned about medicine, how much we've spent."

"Many of the tools that we need, we already have," R. Kathryn McHugh, chief of psychology at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts, told the outlet. "We just need to be deploying them better."