Pandemic Exacerbated Racial Disparities in Drug Deaths: CDC 

The pandemic has already impacted drug overdose deaths in the United States significantly. However, a new  report from the Centers on Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds it has hit people of color the hardest.

The report released Tuesday analyzed overdose data by race, age and income.

While overdose deaths overall rose 30 percent from 2019 to 2020, it increased by 44 percent and 39 percent, respectively, among Blacks and American Indian or Alaska Native persons, the CDC found.

But figures are about twice the overdose death increases of white people (22 percent) and Hispanics (21 percent).

The report based its racial breakdowns on data from 25 states and Washington D.C.

According to the report, the impact of race grew when factoring in age. In 2020, the death rate from overdoses in men 65 and older was nearly seven times greater for Black men than for white men. In Black people ages 15 to 24, the overdose death rate rose to 86 percent from 2019 to 2020.

The report said most overdose deaths stemmed from opioids like fentanyl, but other drugs also triggered the increase, particularly cocaine and methamphetamine.

In addition, access to treatment played a role in overdose deaths, the report found.

Although, the report showed overdose death rates are generally higher in counties with more treatment services and mental health care providers.

But the impact varied according to race. For example, among American Indian and Alaska Native people and Black people, the rate in 2020 in counties with at least one opioid treatment program was more than twice that in counties that lacked such services.

Among counties with comparatively more treatment options than others, overdose death rates from 2019 to 2020 increased by 49 percent among Black people, compared with 19 percent among white people, according to the report.

While the individuals who overdose seldom found treatment, the portion of people who had received treatment for substance abuse was the slightest among Black people (8.3 percent), or about half that of white people who had sought treatment and later died, the report found.

According to the study, income inequalities also played a role in overdose death increases.

The United States had 91,799 overdose deaths in 2020 alone.

“The findings in this report underscore the increasing impact of the escalating overdose crisis on these populations,” the report said.

This summary was prepared by James Van Bramer, associate editor of The Crime Report