Are you sure that drug overdose deaths were on the decline for the decade before 2020? Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, unless I'm misinterpreting Figure 1 from this report, suggest that drug overdose deaths have been rising steadily since 1999:
Lockdowns probably made things worse. Figure 1 shows a 51% increase in drug overdose deaths between 2019 (70.630) and 2021 (106,699).
A recent US News & World report article said that new forms of illicit opioids that are more potent than fentanyl are emerging so the problem could easily worsen:
Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton (a Nobel laureate) began talking about growing numbers of "deaths of despair" almost 10 years ago. They weren't taken seriously at first, but nobody doubts them now. Public health officials have a role to play when it comes to reducing the number of drug overdose deaths, but people with other types of expertise need to be involved as well.
This is a good comment. I was thinking of the state I was in at the time (https://kiprc.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2022-06/KY%20Drug%20Overdose%20Deaths%20Annual%20Report%202021.pdf), but even there I was not strictly correct, as overdose dropped slightly two years before COVID but then increased slightly the year before. Kentucky was doing better than the nation as a whole at the time. Regardless, what I wrote was not correct, and I stand corrected on the statistical point. However, the available data as you’ve cited them still support the policy point I was making: overdose deaths increased dramatically relative to existing trends during the COVID era.
I personally witnessed Anne Case and Angus Deaton present at NIH several years ago, giving a compelling talk on deaths of despair. A questioner (presumably an NIH researcher) sneered at them for talking about problems that affected “white men”. At the time, I was surprised by the level of immaturity and hate in that response
That was unfortunate because our response to public health problems shouldn't change depending upon the race or gender of those who seem to be most affected. Racializing the opioid problem was shortsighted because more recent data shows that overdose death rates for blacks, especially black men, are higher than those for most demographic groups:
Are you sure that drug overdose deaths were on the decline for the decade before 2020? Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, unless I'm misinterpreting Figure 1 from this report, suggest that drug overdose deaths have been rising steadily since 1999:
https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
Lockdowns probably made things worse. Figure 1 shows a 51% increase in drug overdose deaths between 2019 (70.630) and 2021 (106,699).
A recent US News & World report article said that new forms of illicit opioids that are more potent than fentanyl are emerging so the problem could easily worsen:
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2023-09-05/new-opioids-are-joining-the-illicit-drug-supply-and-theyre-more-potent-than-fentanyl
Economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton (a Nobel laureate) began talking about growing numbers of "deaths of despair" almost 10 years ago. They weren't taken seriously at first, but nobody doubts them now. Public health officials have a role to play when it comes to reducing the number of drug overdose deaths, but people with other types of expertise need to be involved as well.
This is a good comment. I was thinking of the state I was in at the time (https://kiprc.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2022-06/KY%20Drug%20Overdose%20Deaths%20Annual%20Report%202021.pdf), but even there I was not strictly correct, as overdose dropped slightly two years before COVID but then increased slightly the year before. Kentucky was doing better than the nation as a whole at the time. Regardless, what I wrote was not correct, and I stand corrected on the statistical point. However, the available data as you’ve cited them still support the policy point I was making: overdose deaths increased dramatically relative to existing trends during the COVID era.
I personally witnessed Anne Case and Angus Deaton present at NIH several years ago, giving a compelling talk on deaths of despair. A questioner (presumably an NIH researcher) sneered at them for talking about problems that affected “white men”. At the time, I was surprised by the level of immaturity and hate in that response
Thanks for the clarification and for sharing what you observed during Case and Deaton's presentation at NIH.
As you noted, many people thought the opioid epidemic was a "white" problem. This NPR report from 2017 illustrates the point:
https://www.npr.org/2017/11/04/562137082/why-is-the-opioid-epidemic-overwhelmingly-white
That was unfortunate because our response to public health problems shouldn't change depending upon the race or gender of those who seem to be most affected. Racializing the opioid problem was shortsighted because more recent data shows that overdose death rates for blacks, especially black men, are higher than those for most demographic groups:
https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/opioid-overdose-deaths-by-raceethnicity/?dataView=1¤tTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7B%22colId%22:%22Location%22,%22sort%22:%22asc%22%7D
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/01/19/recent-surge-in-u-s-drug-overdose-deaths-has-hit-black-men-the-hardest/