After years of slow and steady decline, drug overdose deaths last year in Massachusetts increased 5 percent, as the stress and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic took its tool and treatment providers curtailed services. Even more troubling, overdose fatalities surged 69 percent among Black men, while the rate among Hispanic men remained the highest. The setback reflects broader trends across the country, and a spike in nationwide drug-related deaths to a record 90,000—a nearly 30 percent increase over the year before. The easing of pandemic restrictions isn’t expected to impact the death rate, with overdoses already rising two percent in Massachusetts in the first quarter of 2021.
Meanwhile, at the first opioid trial taking place in West Virginia, the prosecution presented evidence showing that the big three drug distributors facing charges flooded one county in the state with 109.8 million doses of prescription opiates between 2006 and 2014, or about 122 per person annually, mostly to Veterans Affairs clinics. The distributors—along with opioid manufacturers and retail pharmacies—are facing thousands of lawsuits alleging that their actions fueled the nationwide opioid epidemic.
And finally, recent Hollywood films are looking at the experience of grief by families dealing with addiction. But according to the New York Times Magazine, they often get it wrong. The films portray the struggle addicts face, but reduces a complex illness into something like a sports movie or boxing match, with a clear winner and loser and a goal to conquer. But, as the writer points out, addiction does not follow a defined dramatic arc. It is a repetitive, years-long process of trial and error, sometimes ending with a cathartic breakthrough and recovery.