U.S. Drug Overdoses Soar Past 60,000

In 2016, there were more than 63,000 deadly drug overdoses in the nation, according to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The staggering overdose rate is three times the rate of overdose deaths in 1999.

Other important facts from the new report:

• West Virginia had the highest rate of deadly overdoses, followed by Ohio, New Hampshire, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.
• The rate of deadly overdoses involving synthetic opioids (like fentanyl), not including methadone, doubled from 3.1 percent in 2015 to 6.2 percent in 2016.
• Heroin overdose deaths increased 19 percent between 2014 and 2016.
• A majority of deadly drug overdoses – 42,249 – involved opioids. That number is higher than the number of people (41,070) who die from breast cancer annually, CNN reports.

Read the full recently released report Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999-2016.