Drug overdose deaths rose by almost 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. According to Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institutes of Health, “These data are chilling. The COVID-19 pandemic created a devastating collision of health crises in America.”