Overdose Rates Rose for Black Americans

The CDC brief shows that from 2022 to 2023 the overall national overdose death rate fell, but the age-adjusted overdose rate increased for Black non-Hispanic people (and for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander non-Hispanic groups). This signals a shifting racial pattern in the epidemic rather than a uniform national improvement. — If declines are uneven across racial groups, policy and funding that treat the overdose crisis as a single national trend will miss and potentially worsen racial inequities in prevention and treatment.