Cook County is expected to exceed 2,000 opioid deaths in 2022. That's more than double the number of homicides in the county — and will eclipse the previous county record of 1,936 opioid overdose deaths in 2021.
“We know that every year since we've been starting to track the number of opioid-related deaths, we've seen a greater portion of people affected by fentanyl or having fentanyl in their system,” said Dr. Wilnise Jasmin, medical director of behavioral health at the Chicago Department of Public Health. “That can really make it very easy for someone to overdose.”
Multiple factors are contributing to increased drug use and deaths, Ernst said, from increased anxiety due to the pandemic to homelessness, to even the illicit use of a veterinary anesthetic called xylazine. The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office says it expects the toll from opioid overdoses to exceed 2,000 deaths in 2022 once all autopsies for the year have been completed.
“It has to do a lot with racism and poverty — and the housing crisis,” Ernst said. “The vast majority of unhoused people are African American men, and they are also more likely to not have somewhere to stay for a little while to double up as it were. Women are more likely to have somewhere to double up or a safety net.”“Of those people who died from opioid-related overdose deaths, many are older black males falling between the ages of 44 and 65,” Jasmin said.
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