Drug Overdose Deaths Hit More Than 71,500 in 2017

Law enforcement officials at the home of a man who was found dead from an apparent drug overdose in the Drexel neighborhood of Montgomery County, Ohio, on Aug. 3, 2017. Benjamin Chasteen/The Epoch Times

Fueled by the opioid crisis—particularly the flood of powerful synthetic opioids such as fentanyl from China—drug overdose deaths increased by at least 6.6 percent in 2017, according to provisional data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

More than 71,500 Americans died of a drug overdose, with at least 68 percent of those deaths attributed to opioids.