He was known for his easy smile, she said. Gustavson was close to his mother, two brothers and the rest of his family, said his grandmother, Nancy Sack. His blood was found to show signs of fentanyl, heroin, marijuana and the sedative Xanax, Wersal said. "I honestly don't see it getting better, not soon," he said.Īmong the year's victims was Travis Gustavson, who died in February at the age of 21 in Mankato. Jeff Wersal, who leads a regional drug task force. The area around the city of Mankato has seen its count of overdose deaths rise from two in 2019, to six last year to 16 so far this year, said police Lt. Minnesota saw an increase of about 39%, with estimated overdose deaths rising to 1,188 in May 2020 through April 2021 from 858 in the previous 12-month period. The states with largest increases were Vermont (70%), West Virginia (62%) and Kentucky (55%). It found the estimated death toll rose in all but four states - Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey and South Dakota - compared with the same period a year earlier. The CDC has not yet calculated racial and ethnic breakdowns of the overdose victims. Dealers have mixed fentanyl with other drugs - one reason that deaths from methamphetamines and cocaine also are rising. The new data shows many of the deaths involve illicit fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid that five years ago surpassed heroin as the type of drug involved in the most overdose deaths. Daniel Ciccarone, a drug policy expert at the University of California, San Francisco. "2021 is going to be terrible," agreed Dr. Robert Anderson, the CDC's chief of mortality statistics, said the 2021 tally is likely to surpass 100,000. The CDC previously reported there were about 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, the highest number recorded in a calendar year. Patricia Saldivar rented a billboard in Arlington, Texas, to try to raise awareness of the dangers of fentanyl following her daughter's death, WFAA reports. SEE ALSO: Mom's billboard warns others after daughter dies due to fentanyl-laced pill It can take many months for death investigations involving drug fatalities to become final, so the agency made the estimate based on 98,000 reports it has received so far. 7 cause of death.ĭrawing from the latest available death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 100,300 Americans died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021. The total is close to that for diabetes, the nation's No. "It's a magnitude of overdose death that we haven't seen in this country."ĭrug overdoses now surpass deaths from car crashes, guns and even flu and pneumonia.
The number is "devastating," said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues.
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE COMPLETE SERIES CAPTION DRIVERS
Experts believe the top drivers are the growing prevalence of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply and the COVID-19 pandemic, which left many drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment or other support.
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