claim: “We’ve had more Americans die of fentanyl than the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam Wars, combined.”
evidence: Why it matters: Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times stronger than heroin, has killed more Americans than the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined. In 2021 alone, more than 107,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, with the main culprit being fentanyl mixed with other drugs or chemicals, often without the user's knowledge. Provisional data from the CDC show that 100,500 Americans died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period from September 2021 to September 2022. Americans aged between 18 and 49 are more likely to die from fentanyl poisoning than any other cause of death. [...] Moreover, fentanyl did not take such a hold on the U.S. drug market until recently. In 2016, 20,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid overdoses. Since then, fentanyl overdoses have been steadily increasing.