The report showed that deaths rose sharply across ethnic groups. Deaths among Black New Yorkers jumped by about 500% from 2010 to 2020, Hispanics had a four-fold increase, and fatalities among whites tripled.

The primary culprit for the spike in overdose deaths is synthetic opioids; examples are fentanyl and tramadol. In 2010, those drugs accounted for just 11% of the deaths in New York. Last year, they accounted for 78%. Most of those were due to illegally produced fentanyl, which drug makers use as an additive in other drugs to create a cheap but very powerful – and sometimes lethal – high.