New York, Jan 13. Deaths from drug overdose (including alcohol) reached 2,668 in New York City in 2021, which is the highest since there are records in this city and presents an alarming increase of 500 more cases compared to the year former.
The figures – presented yesterday by the Department of Health of the Mayor’s Office, and which are collected today by the media – show that fentanyl (a powerful synthetic opioid) continues to be the most common drug among overdose cases, since it occurs in 80% of deaths, a trend observed for the fifth consecutive year.
Among the deceased, cocaine was also found in 47% of the cases and alcohol in 39%, which shows that addicts consume several substances simultaneously.
Across the United States, overdose deaths totaled 108,000 cases in the same 2021.
The death figures are not distributed in an “equal” manner, and important biases are observed: the black population was clearly overrepresented, since it accounted for 39.8% of these deaths; in addition, the county of the Bronx (where the black population is concentrated) also has the highest rate of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, above other counties in the city.
New York has the only “overdose prevention center” -also called “controlled injection”- in the country, opened in November 2021, and although its managers assure that they have managed to prevent 670 deaths, there is significant resistance at the political level to generalize its opening in the city and throughout the country. EFE
fjo/nqs/cpy
