COLUMBUS – The government says nearly 6,000 Ohioans were among the estimated 100,000 Americans who died of drug overdoses in one year.
That’s a total the nation has never seen before and experts say it’s tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.
New preliminary figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that, from May 2020 to this April, there were 5,585 fatal drug overdoses in Ohio.
Overdose deaths have been rising for more than two decades.
But they accelerated dramatically in the past two years, jumping 26.6% in Ohio and nearly 30% in the nation as a whole.
The numbers for the 12-month period aren’t yet final.