Overdose death rate for U.S. Black population higher than white: study

NEW YORK, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The fatal overdose rate among Black people surpassed that for white people in the United States in 2020, the first time since 1999, a recent study showed.

Over 15,200 overdoses were reported among Black people in the year, more than double the number from four years earlier, according to data published in March by researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry.

"The proliferation of the potent opioid fentanyl, and a pandemic that has added hazards for people who use drugs, are driving new records in U.S. overdose deaths, and Black communities have been hit especially hard," The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

Black people often have uneven access to healthcare, including effective drug treatment, placing them at high risk, researchers and health experts say.