Kentucky deaths from overdose up 14% in 2021

WVOW News

FRANKFORT Overdose deaths rose 14.5% from 2020 to 2021 in Kentucky due to fentanyl use.

According to a new report, 2,250 people died from overdoses in 2021 in Bluegrass State. The number is near double the more than 1,300 people that overdosed in 2020 and 2019.

Fentanyl was identified as a leading factor in more than 73% of Kentucky drug overdoses.

Last year, for the first time, more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses over a 12-month period, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about two-thirds of those deaths linked to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs.