Over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses from in the one-year period ending in April – more than the number of car crash and gun fatalities combined, according to a new report from the New York Times.
“In the 12-month period that ended in April, more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, up almost 30 percent from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year, according to provisional figures from the National Center for Health Statistics,” the New York Times reported. “The figure marks the first time the number of overdose deaths in the United States has exceeded 100,000 a year, more than the toll of car crashes and gun fatalities combined. Overdose deaths have more than doubled since 2015.”
The Times added, “Though recent figures through September suggest the overdose death rate may have slowed, the grim tally signals a public health crisis whose magnitude was both obscured by the Covid pandemic and accelerated by it, experts said.”
The deaths have been largely a result of the surge in fentanyl coming across the southern border amid record breaking illegal immigration levels.
“[Customs and Border Protection’ (CBP)] Office of Field Operations has seen a slight increase in narcotic seizures at its southern border ports of entry in fiscal year 2021,” CBP said in a statement. “As cross-border travel shifted to essential-travel only, criminal organizations shifted their operations as well. CBP has seen an increase in seizures amongst U.S. citizens and in the commercial environment as both demographics are exempt from the travel restrictions.”
So far in 2021, the DEA has seized over 12,000 pounds of fentanyl, nearly three times the 4,776 pounds seized by the DEA in 2020.
