Provisional data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was updated Wednesday showed that overdose deaths in Alaska increased by 75.3% last year compared to 2020.
During the 12-month period ending in December 2020, 146 overdose deaths were recorded in Alaska. In the 12-month period ending in December 2021, 256 overdose deaths were reported in the state. This increase was the biggest spike in deaths recorded nationwide, according to the CDC.
Overall, there were an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, a nearly 15% increase over 2020. According to the CDC, overdose deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl contributed to the increase in fatal overdoses last year, along with psychostimulants such as methamphetamine, and cocaine.
Data released this week showed that national overdose deaths involving opioids increased from an estimated 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021.
In Alaska, 102 deaths listed were reported in the “opioids” category in the 12-month period ending in December 2020, compared to 196 in the 12-month period ending in December 2021.
Sandy Snodgrass of Anchorage, Alaska, lost her 22-year-old son Bruce in October to a fentanyl overdose. Fentanyl was developed to manage pain for cancer patients and is 80-100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.
“The most difficult thing for me was, I couldn’t help him when he was under the influence,” Snodgrass said, according to Alaska’s News Source. “The last thing I said to him every time he walked out the door is, ‘please be careful out there, I love you.’”
An Audacy report from last year found that most U.S. states saw a spike in deaths related to fentanyl from March 2020 to February 2021. Counterfeit pills containing fentanyl – unbeknownst to those who take them – have been a source of the overdoses. For example, Snodgrass thinks her son did not know he was taking fentanyl before he perished.
While overdose deaths are still high in the U.S., the 2021 increase was half of what it was a year ago, when overdose deaths rose 30% from 2019 to 2020, according to the CDC.
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