• Posted April 2, 2025

Drug Overdose Deaths Rising Faster in Black Americans, Study Finds

Black Americans have been dying from drug overdoses (OD) at higher rates than white Americans, a new study says.

Both Black men and women are at greater risk of a fatal OD compared to white people, researchers reported April 1 in JAMA Network Open.

The OD death rate for Black men surpassed the rate for white men in 2016, and was nearly 60% higher by 2020, researchers found.

Likewise, OD deaths gradually rose among Black women, surpassing those of white women by 2019, results show.

“Efforts to reduce drug-related mortality must address the specific needs of marginalized communities, especially Black men,” lead investigator Kechna Cadet, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, said in a news release.

The U.S. opioid epidemic has caused nearly 1 million deaths since its onset, researchers estimated in background notes. In 2021 alone, more than 107,000 lives were lost to ODs involving illicit drugs like fentanyl, heroin and cocaine.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 519,000 fatal drug ODs reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 2010 and 2020.

State-level data show that Black men living in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and Wisconsin lost the most years of potential life to drug overdose, compared to other states.

In all, there were 17 states where Black men lost more than the average years of potential life compared with the rest of the U.S., including California, Texas, Illinois, New York, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland, the study found.

Maryland had the highest increase in fatal drug ODs among Black men, with a 485% increase between 2015 and 2020, researchers said.

Other locales with large increases in ODs among Black men included the District of Columbia (360%), Virginia (291%), Alabama (283%), North Carolina (271%) and New Jersey (268%).

By comparison, fatal overdoses among white women declined in Alaska (23%), Oklahoma (19%) and Wyoming (20%), researchers found.

“Our goal was to identify the specific sociodemographic groups and regions that have faced the highest levels of inequality and are in urgent need of intervention,” Cadet said.

Historically, the majority of OD deaths have occurred in white people, but OD rates involving opioids and cocaine have leveled off among white men and women while continue to increase in Black and Hispanic groups, researchers said.

“Our analysis of intersectional race and sex disparities over the past decade offers crucial insights for directing much needed resources such as harm reduction services and tailored treatment programs to the populations most in need of urgent targeted interventions to decrease unintentional drug overdoses,” senior researcher Dr. Silvia Martins, director of substance use epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, said in a news release.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on the opioid overdose epidemic.

SOURCES: Columbia University, news release, April 1, 2025; JAMA Network Open, April 1, 2025