This State Had the Largest Increase in Drug Overdoses

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 16, 8:20AM EDT

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This State Had the Largest Increase in Drug Overdoses — © Artem_Furman / iStock via Getty Images

Drug overdoses hit an all-time high last year. Some experts have blamed this on the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of drug overdoses reached 87,203 for the period from September 2019 to September 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The figures are preliminary and are expected to reach as high as 90,307, once some deaths under investigation are added.

The change in drug overdoses last year compared to the year before is an increase of 28.8%.

The state with the largest percentage increase was Louisiana, where the number rose 54% to 1,826. This figure is the CDC prediction and could go higher. Kentucky was second with an increase of 50% to 1,956.

California’s figure of 8,821 was up 40.5% and is 10% of the national total. California’s total being in first place makes sense. The state also is the most populous, with about 12% of U.S. residents.

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The States With the Largest Increases in Drug Overdoses

State	Total	% Change
Louisiana	1,826	54.0
Kentucky	1,956	50.0
West Virginia	1,287	47.3
South Carolina	1,625	45.3
Colorado	1,489	43.0
Florida	7,524	42.4
Tennessee	2,980	41.7
Virginia	2,060	41.3
California	8,821	40.5
Maine	465	38.8
Wyoming	97	38.6
Arkansas	494	38.4
Arizona	2,635	37.1
Mississippi	485	35.1
Nebraska	204	35.1

Click here to read about the 25 most dangerous drugs.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.