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100,000-plus overdose deaths… “Chasing the White Dragon”
History of America’s opioid crisis.
IN THE NEWS:
100,000 Overdose Deaths
As reported by the Wall Street Journal in November 2021, the societal cost of the opioid crisis reached a record last year — 100,306 overdose deaths in the 12 months through April 2021. This is a 29% increase over the previous twelve-month period. The chart in the featured image of this post places the swiftness of this rise into perspective: overdose deaths were less than 50,000 in 2019!
The rising death toll is attributed to the increased availability of potent drugs on the streets, loss of access to treatment during the Covid-19 pandemic, which in turn contributed to higher incidents of mental health problems. See NYTimes, 11/17/2021.
To better understand the opioid pandemic, we spoke with Professor Golnaz Agahi of the University of Massachusetts Global, School of Social Work. She tells the history of America’s opioid crisis from an eyewitness perspective — she has been there from the beginning, working with opioid users since the late 1990s. Professor Agahi has over 20 years of expertise in alcohol and drug prevention and treatment, as well as suicide prevention and treatment — a subject she feels quite passionately about…
