The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting nearly 108,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States last year — a 50% jump over 2019. The CDC said about two-thirds of the deaths involved fentanyl or other synthetic opioids.
In related news, the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the National Gallery in London have become the latest cultural institutions to remove the Sackler name from rooms at their museums. The billionaire family founded Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, the highly addictive drug at the center of the opioid epidemic.