SAN FRANCISCO – With nearly 110,000 Americans dying from drug overdoses last year, it’s important to know how fentanyl has impacted your community. A new, first-of-its-kind tracker reveals how many drug overdoses each county in the U.S. has suffered. The San Francisco Chronicle created the tracker using information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This tracker carries significant weight because it sheds light on the varying impacts felt across different regions of the country. Just to give you an idea, the fatal overdose rate in the U.S. for the past year averaged 32.3 per 100,000 individuals. However, according to The Chronicle’s findings, certain cities and counties are grappling with death tolls that skyrocket three to five times beyond this national average.
The Chronicle also ran a report on the overdose death rates in large counties or cities with more than 500,000 people. Baltimore suffered the most deaths with 174.1 per 100,000 people, followed by Davidson County in Tennessee (which includes Nashville) with 101.5 and Philadelphia County with 88.5.
In South Dakota where Emily’s Hope is based, Pennington County had the highest overdose rate at 15.7, followed by Minnehaha County with 15.2.
If you or a loved one is struggling with substance use disorder, Emily’s Hope encourages you to seek help. With fentanyl in the drug supply, using illicit drugs is more deadly than ever before. We’ve compiled a list of resources for help on the Emily’s Hope website.