The State With the Most Fentanyl Deaths

Health and Healthcare

Published: February 25, 2022 9:30 am

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks drug overdose deaths. For the 12-month period that ended April 2021 (the most recent period covered), the figure was 100,306 drug overdose deaths, up 28.5% from the year before. Among the largest contributors to the figure was deaths from fentanyl. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), “Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80-100 times stronger than morphine.” Many people who believe they have purchased heroin have actually purchased fentanyl, a primary cause of overdoses.

The DEA says the drug has a number of street names, including Apache, China Girl, China Town, China White, Dance Fever, Goodfellas, Great Bear, He-Man, Poison and Tango & Cash.

More Americans ages 18 to 45 were killed by fentanyl than any other cause in 2020, including suiсide, car accidents and COVID-19. No state has been left untouched by the fentanyl crisis, but in some states the crisis is worse and fatalities have skyrocketed in recent years.

To determine the state with the highest rate of fentanyl fatalities, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the Fentanyl: The State We’re In report from advocacy group Families Against Fentanyl. The report uses data from the CDC on the total number of fentanyl-caused deaths by state from 2015 to 2021. We used the number of fentanyl deaths and five-year population data from the Census Bureau to rank the states by fentanyl fatalities per capita.

Fentanyl often has been used as a pain management treatment for cancer patients, but illicitly manufactured fentanyl is often mixed in with other narcotics and causes a high share of the drug overdose and fatality cases in the United States.

The number of fentanyl fatalities per capita over the past few years varies widely from state to state. A dozen states reported fewer than 20 fatalities per 100,000 residents from 2015 to 2021. Conversely, 12 other states reported more than 100 fentanyl-related fatalities per 100,000 during that same time. One state recorded over 200 deaths per 100,000.

The prevalence of fentanyl-related deaths has grown significantly in recent years. From 2015 to 2021, the number of fentanyl deaths increased by 547% in the United States overall. Additionally, all but one state for which there is data saw fentanyl deaths more than double in that period.

The state with the most fentanyl deaths is West Virginia. Here are the details:

Fentanyl deaths per capita, 2015 to 2021: 216.6 per 100,000
Total fentanyl deaths, 2015 to 2021: 3,937 (19th highest)
Increase in fentanyl deaths from 2015 to 2021: +430%
Population: 1,817,305

Click here to see all the states with the most fentanyl deaths.

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