How COVID-19 Made The Opioid Epidemic Deadlier06:38

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More than 90,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. last year, according to preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The toll — which is largely comprised of opioid-related deaths — is the highest it has been since the start of the opioid epidemic in the 1990s, a stark reminder of how the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated substance use.

In many cities, including Philadelphia, overdose deaths disproportionately affected Black residents.

Here & Now's Robin Young speaks with Dr. Utsha Khatri, an emergency medicine physician and fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she researches substance use.