If you know someone who’s died of a drug overdose, you are far from alone. A new study from the esteemed RAND Corporation is shocking; it finds that 2 in 5 Americans know someone who’s died of a drug overdose.
Here in New York, the problem is only getting worse. More than 5,100 New Yorkers died from an opioid-related overdose in 2022 alone. That same year in New York City, a record number of people died of overdoses; fentanyl was involved in the vast majority of those fatalities. I’ve written before that it’s become almost commonplace to see people overdosing publicly in New York.