In AP report, Monnat weighs in on record US overdose deaths

July 15, 2021

The Associated Press

Shannon Monnat

Sociology Department

Aging Studies Institute

Center for Policy Research

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Addiction

COVID-19

United States

The Associated Press

Shannon Monnat

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday. That estimate far eclipses the high of about 72,000 drug overdose deaths reached the previous year and amounts to a 29 percent increase. "What’s really driving the surge in overdoses is this increasingly poisoned drug supply," says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. "Nearly all of this increase is fentanyl contamination in some way. Heroin is contaminated. Cocaine is contaminated. Methamphetamine is contaminated." Read more in the Associated Press article, "US overdose deaths hit record 93,000 in pandemic last year."