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Drug overdose deaths soar nationally but plateau in some Western states

Drug overdose deaths soar nationally but plateau in some Western states

January 8, 2018

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The opioid crisis on the East Coast and in the Midwest has fueled a national surge in drug deaths, even as fatal overdoses have decreased or remained stable in parts of the West, new federal data show.

Deaths from opiates, cocaine and methamphetamines shot up by 35 percent in the United States between the year ending in May 2015 and that ending in May 2017, from about 49,000 to about 66,000, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pennsylvania and Florida saw massive increases in overdose deaths — 83 percent and 85 percent, respectively — in the two years compared.

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