Since the pandemic first began, anxiety and stress levels have skyrocketed across the nation. It’s been a struggle for many people who have had to deal with job losses, social dislocation, and the deaths of loved ones. Worse yet, it’s exacerbated another insidious problem we’ve already been dealing with for years: drug overdose deaths from the opioid epidemic. In 2020, more than 93,000 people died from a drug overdose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. It’s by far the deadliest year on record for drug overdoses and comes at a time when many people have lost access to support groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
