02/16/2024

Report Finds Smoking Drugs is Now Connected to More Overdoses Than Injecting Them

The report examined data from crime scene investigations

The percentage of overdose deaths linked to smoking drugs rose sharply in recent years, overtaking injection as the leading route of drug use involved in such deaths, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The report, published Thursday, looked at information from crime scene investigations, witness reports and autopsy data and categorized overdose deaths by evidence of smoking, injecting, ingesting or snorting drugs. Researchers compared data on drug deaths from January to June 2020 with data from July to December 2022. By the end of 2022, smoking was the most common form of drug consumption involved in overdose deaths.

Specifically, the percentage of overdose deaths that involved smoking increased almost 74 percent – from 13.3 percent to 23.1 percent – between 2020 and 2022. During the same time period, the percentage of overdose deaths involving injections fell from 22.7 percent to 16.1 percent.

Please select this link to read the complete article from CNN.