Yahoo Finance’s Adriana Belmonte reports on the rise in drug overdose deaths in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Video Transcript

JARED BLIKRE: The overdose crisis in the US is mounting thanks to the unique challenges of the pandemic. According to the latest CDC data, drug overdose deaths increased by 31% recently to a record high. And here to break down all of the stats and the information for us is Adriana Belmonte. And Adriana, thank you for joining us here. You're writing for us at Yahoo Finance. I encourage everybody to read this article going up shortly. What are some of the findings here? And how concerning is it given the status of the pandemic right now?

ADRIANA BELMONTE: Yes, so we often talk about the financial toll of the pandemic, even a little bit of the mental health toll, but we don't realize that for people who've already had existing mental health issues, like substance use disorder, the pandemic just exacerbated it. Whether it's the loss of a loved one, the anxiety over getting sick, or just the social isolation, the pandemic has just completely, completely wrecked these stats. It was already going up and it just got even worse.

KARINA MITCHELL: And so what are some of the opioids that are actually causing the issue? Is it sort of cocktail mixes that are out there? Is it prescription opioids?

ADRIANA BELMONTE: Yes, so synthetic opioids accounted for more than 63% of all the fatal drug overdoses. So synthetic means that it's not natural. So that, fentanyl is the most common one. And it's becoming more and more popular over the years, and it's especially becoming popular because of the regulation of prescription opioids with everything going on with all these lawsuits.

They're under more scrutiny, so people are turning to more things on the streets. And with fentanyl, it's extremely potent. It's more potent than heroin or morphine, and it's cheap and easy to ship, and so that's why it's easier for drug dealers to put those on the streets rather than the drugs that people are normally used to.

JARED BLIKRE: And Adriana, one of the things that stood out to me in your story that I kind of knew tangentially, but you really give some good detail, on how the specific ways in which people were not able to access medical services, critical services to help them with addiction during the pandemic. I'm just wondering if you were able to find, has some of that at least gotten a little bit better in the transition period that we're in right now?

ADRIANA BELMONTE: Yeah, it definitely has improved. But at the beginning of the pandemic when everything was shut down, this included things like methadone clinics, needle exchange programs. And these are, methadone clinics in particular, it's the medication assisted treatment. So for people who are trying to wean off their addiction, they consume methadone under the direction of a doctor, which helps them maintain their urges.