evidence: Last year set a record for overdose deaths but federal officials forecast 2021 to be even more tragic. In West Virginia, that outlook is even more bleak. [...] That provisional data represents a 29 percent increase in the nation from one year prior. In West Virginia, deaths increased twice that rate at 62 percent. Vermont is the only other state to see a more significant increase at 70 percent. "This translates to an American perishing from a drug overdose death every five minutes," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, the nation’s recently confirmed drug czar and former West Virginia state health officer in a news conference on Wednesday.