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As overdose deaths surge in Massachusetts and the nation at large, around 500 members of the local community dedicated to recovery took to the streets to show the light on the other side of addiction.
Drug-attributable deaths exploded nationally in 2020 when 91,799 Americans lost their lives to drugs — a leap of more than 20,000 over the previous year, and well more than double the national deaths attributed to drug use a decade earlier, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database.
Opioids have become an even greater problem in Massachusetts, with deaths related to use of that category climbing 8.8% in 2021 over the previous year, according to the state’s Department of Public Health. That’s 2,290 confirmed and estimated Massachusetts opioid-related deaths last year alone, which is a huge chunk of the 18,522 deaths from 2010 through 2021. Read the full article.
