Overdose deaths soar amid pandemic in West Virginia, which already had the highest rate in the U.S.

[TexasTowelie]

Drug overdose deaths are up more than 40% in West Virginia, an increase likely driven by the coronavirus pandemic, according to preliminary data released this month by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Between August 2019 and August 2020, 1,147 West Virginians fatally overdosed on drugs, compared to 816 during the same 12-month period the year before, the CDC report shows.

“People are dying at mass rates,” said Chelsea Carter, program coordinator at Brighter Futures Substance and Mental Health Treatment in Boone County. “One of the reasons is they are using alone more frequently, and when they overdose, there is no one there to help save them.”

West Virginia’s increase was higher than all but four states — Louisiana, Kentucky, Colorado and South Carolina — and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, overdose deaths have jumped by 25%, according to the CDC’s provisional data.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/03/24/overdose-deaths-soar-in-w-va-amid-pandemic/

[WHITT]

1. It's Not The Pandemic

It's the Fentanyl. The dealers are spiking everything with Fentanyl and it's killing people. The rise in OD deaths started spiking well before the pandemic, in mid 2019.