America’s ten-year-old fentanyl epidemic is still getting worse

The government is spending record amounts, just to slow its growth


IT IS TESTIMONY to the intractable nature of America’s fentanyl epidemic that officials measure progress not in falling numbers of deaths, but in a slowing rate of growth. After a decade of horrifying ascent, the administration of President Joe Biden points out, the yearly number of fatal overdoses appears at last to be slowing to a gentle climb (see chart 1). The figure for 2022 was just 5% higher than that of 2021. That still leaves fentanyl and other synthetic opioids like it killing some 75,000 people a year—more than double the figure of 2019. But in the fight against the deadliest narcotic in American history, that is what passes for success.

  • Source America’s ten-year-old fentanyl epidemic is still getting worse
  • you may also like