Deadly multidrug cocktails of opioids mixed with cocaine or psychostimulants such as crystal meth have driven more overdose deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.
Medical records found opioids present in 78.6% of overdose deaths involving cocaine and 65.7% of those involving psychostimulants such as methamphetamine, amphetamine and methylphenidate in 2021, according to the latest CDC data. These downer and upper combinations also became more common in the decade leading up to that year, the federal agency said.
Overdose deaths involving cocaine and opioids became more than seven times more common from 2011 to 2021, growing from less than 1 death for every 100,000 people to nearly 6 for every 100,000 over that period. Those involving psychostimulants and opioids became 22 times more common, jumping from 0.3 death per 100,000 people in 2011 to almost 7 in 2021.
“This report emphasizes that opioid involvement continues to drive overall increases in drug overdose deaths in the United States, where overdoses from cocaine and overdoses from drugs like methamphetamine are often not acting alone in causing overdose deaths,” CDC statistician Merianne Spencer, a co-author of the report, told The Washington Times.
The report counted 24,486 drug overdose deaths involving cocaine and 32,537 drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants by the end of 2021.
The percentage of drug overdose deaths involving opioids mixed with cocaine or psychostimulants varied by region and was highest in the Northeast.
The report found that drug overdose deaths involving cocaine alone grew from 1.5 per 100,000 people in 2011 to 7.3 in 2021.
Although the figures did not break down the types of opioids, they follow other CDC reports showing that fentanyl has driven a surge in drug overdose deaths that worsened during COVID-19 lockdowns as Americans flocked to deadlier drug combinations. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that depresses the central nervous system, is often prescribed as a painkiller that is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.
A CDC study released last year found the U.S. experienced a record-high 30% increase in drug overdose deaths from 2019 to 2020, driven primarily by fentanyl.
In May, the CDC reported that fentanyl caused the highest rate of drug overdose deaths in 2021.
The age-adjusted rate of fatal overdoses in 2021 was highest for deaths involving fentanyl, at 21.6 for every 100,000 people, the CDC found. Next came methamphetamine (9.6 deaths for every 100,000 people), cocaine (7.9), heroin (2.9) and oxycodone (1.5).
Opioid users have increasingly mixed other drugs with them to extend their highs, the agency has warned. Additionally, drug dealers have long mixed cheaper substances into drugs to widen their profit margins.
According to two CDC reports released last month, the powerful animal tranquilizer xylazine was detected more often in opioid overdose deaths from 2018 to 2022. White House drug czar Rahul Gupta has designated the combination — known as tranq dope — an emerging threat.
A separate CDC report this month found that about 110,000 people nationwide died from drug overdoses during the 12 months ended in February, the most recent period for which data is available.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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