Drug overdose deaths soared last year in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic, and evidence now suggests that Black Americans may have suffered the heaviest toll. Although the CDC doesn’t track drug deaths by race, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania say data collected in Philadelphia show that overdoses climbed more than 50 percent among the city’s Black residents, while among whites fatalities remained flat and in some months even declined. Analysts say that people of color and poor Americans generally face a harder time accessing addiction treatment and are less likely to be given addiction withdrawal medications as part of treatment.
Meanwhile, officials in Maine are also concerned about the state’s staggering increase in drug overdoses last year to a record 502—a nearly 30 percent increase over the previous year. Maine was just getting a handle on the addiction crisis when the pandemic hit, bringing isolation and depression and cutting many people off from treatment, while their struggles were obscured by efforts to contain the virus. Across the country, drug-related overdoses spiked in 2020 to more than 83,000 during the 12-month period ending in June, the highest level ever recorded in a year.
And finally, Mexico is about to legalize marijuana, a landmark policy change that would make the country the world’s largest market for the drug—but don’t expect a “green” profit wave to materialize anytime soon. Analysts say a majority of Mexicans oppose legalization, and there’s relatively low domestic demand compared to Canada, another legal country. And if Mexican drug cartels expect to make money by exporting marijuana, they will face competition from the 13 states in the U.S. that allow legal sales of the drug.