2021 was “the deadliest year in U.S. history” and “the coronavirus is not solely to blame” reports the Associated Press. While CDC data shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, as did diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke, one tragic computation is teenage overdoses.

Data research suggests that although “drug use among teens is down”, unfortunately “adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population.” The largest jump in overdose deaths is among 14-to 18-year-olds, according to CDC data.

Although full data has not yet been finalized due to necessary lab work and investigations in drug overdose deaths, “provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at lease 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021.”

#STATOFTHEDAY An estimated 106,854 people in the United States died of a drug overdose in the one-year period ending in November of 2021. https://t.co/qlmkj6yCCs pic.twitter.com/cWWFrz7Pzx

— NCHS (@NCHStats) April 13, 2022

That number significantly jumped up from the 93,000 deaths from 2020. Tragically, the number of overdose deaths in adolescents were “fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

Those numbers almost doubled in 2020, to 954, researchers estimate the total will hit  nearly 1,150 for 2021. The large spike is considered “unprecedented” by Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author.

Fentanyl is considered to be the reason behind what is killing our youth in increasing numbers.

The Associated Press reports fentanyl is a “highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs that teens sometimes abuse.”