Facing a proliferation of the potent opiate fentanyl, along with isolating lockdowns and other stressors related to the coronavirus pandemic, Louisiana endured the nation’s fifth-worst surge in drug overdose deaths last year, the federal government said Wednesday.
About 1,930 people died of drug overdoses in Louisiana in 2020, an increase of nearly 48% from the roughly 1,300 such deaths reported in 2019, according to preliminary information from the National Center for Health Statistics. Only Vermont, West Virginia, Kentucky and South Carolina registered greater increases, with jumps ranging between 53% and 58%.
Overdose deaths across the U.S. soared to a record 93,000 last year, easily surpassing the prior mark of 72,000 set in 2019, the government’s estimate shows. That equates to a jump of nearly 30% — a staggering 250 overdose deaths per day, or 11 an hour.
But the Pelican State shouldered a disproportionate amount of the spike, according to the government's findings, which confirmed a February analysis from The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate.
For example, the number of additional overdose deaths in Louisiana last year — 631 — was greater than in all but a handful of states in the country. And that number was higher than the total overdose deaths of many states.
Jonathan “Duke” Guillory was getting back on his feet in early 2020.
Jefferson Parish Coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich said the statistics are not a surprise.
He noted that last year was defined by prolonged periods of social distancing and other sacrifices to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which hit Louisiana particularly hard. Simultaneously, the dangerously powerful opiate fentanyl has continued to replace heroin and prescription painkillers as the drug driving the nation’s overdose epidemic for the last couple of years, especially in Louisiana. Dealers have been known to lace drugs with fentanyl to boost their potency while keeping them affordable.
“Everyone always says we lead the nation in all the bad categories and are at the bottom in the good categories,” said Cvitanovich, whose parish is the second-most populous in Louisiana. “In the case of fentanyl deaths, sadly, that’s true.”
Cvitanovich estimates that fentanyl overdose deaths in Jefferson this year are on pace to be two times higher than they were last year and four times higher than they were in 2019.
He said the drug’s potency was tragically on display earlier this year, when a senior at nearby Belle Chasse High School died after taking just half of a pill thought to contain fentanyl. Another girl took the other half of the pill and ended up unresponsive, though she survived.
Plaquemines Parish authorities have arrested a Gretna man accused of selling drugs laced with fentanyl to 18-year-old Hailey Deickman, a Belle…
Authorities investigating that case have jailed the man accused of providing the pill to Hailey Deickman, who died at 18, as well as the other girl, whose name wasn't publicly released.
Cvitanovich said he hasn't seen any evidence that the stresses of the pandemic drove more Americans to begin using drugs. Other experts quoted in national publications concur, saying all signs are that the lion’s share of the increased overdose deaths occurred among people who were already battling drug addiction. Their struggles were worsened by the isolation, interrupted routines and joblessness resulting from the pandemic.
Regardless, the spike in deadly overdoses helped 2020 become the deadliest-ever year for the nation, which recorded more than 3.3 million deaths last year, 378,000 of which were attributed to the coronavirus.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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