Are deaths from opioid overdoses still rising?

About 69,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2020. This represented a grim new height for overdose deaths, due to increased stress and reduced access to care during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as greater prevalence of more lethal drugs such as fentanyl. In 2019, more than 49,000 people died from opioid overdoses, higher than the number of Americans killed by HIV/AIDS or guns in any single year. Drug overdoses have been higher and rising more rapidly among men over the past two decades and more recently among those aged 25 to 34 years. Although opioid overdose-related death rates among non-Hispanic whites have typically exceeded that of other groups, rates among Blacks have risen more steeply in recent years, a trend that preliminary data indicate may have accelerated during the pandemic. Monthly state data indicate that overdose rates remained elevated in 2021. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "Estimated overdose deaths from opioids increased to 75,673 in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, up from 56,064 the year before."