Drug Overdoses are Becoming More Deadly in the U.S.

The CDC has released new data on the ratio of fatal to nonfatal overdoses from 2010 to 2020 in the latest edition of Injury Prevention. The study (Estimating the ratio of fatal to non-fatal overdoses involving all drugs, all opioids, synthetic opioids, heroin or stimulants, USA, 2010–2020 | Injury Prevention (bmj.com) found that overdoses are increasingly more likely to result in death, as the ratio between fatal and non-fatal overdoses doubled from 2010 to 2020 in the U.S.

Increases in fatal overdoses are largely due to people using more than one substance at once and the growing presence of more potent synthetic opioids, like illegally made fentanyl, in the U.S. drug supply.