U.S. records over 109,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022: CDC

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- U.S. drug overdose deaths surpassed 109,000 in 2022, and nearly 70 percent of these deaths involved synthetic opioids other than methadone and primarily illegally manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, according to data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

From January-June 2020 to July-December 2022, the percentage of overdose deaths in the United States with evidence of smoking increased by 73.7 percent, according to CDC. Similar changes were observed in all U.S. regions.

Strengthening and expanding public health and harm reduction services to address overdose risk with smoking and other non-injection routes might reduce deaths, said CDC.