evidence: Still, nearly 84% of fatal overdoses reported in West Virginia over those 12 months — 1,178 of them — included an opioid, the CDC said. All but 53 of the opioid-related deaths included synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, which have been on the increase in West Virginia and nationwide for several years and are much more deadly than natural opioids. Between 2020 and 2021 — after two consecutive years of declines in the number of fatal overdoses — West Virginia again began to see an increase in drug overdose deaths, which experts said was likely tied to strains from the pandemic. According to provisional data from the state Office of Drug Control Policy — which tracks data from January to January, unlike the CDC — there were at least 1,333 drug overdose deaths in West Virginia during 2020. That’s a 51% increase, compared to the 884 overdose deaths reported in 2019, according to the state agency.