Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report showing there were 2,339 reported overdose deaths in Virginia from December 2022 to December 2023. Drug overdose is now the leading cause of unnatural death in the state. As fentanyl flows over our porous southern border, the drug is stealing the lives of not only adults, but an increasing number of children across the country.
While the CDC’s data on youth overdose deaths are incomplete from 2023, in 2022, 45 children in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., died of fentanyl overdoses. The number of children ages 12 to 17 who have perished from fentanyl has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic. And for every fentanyl death, there are many more fentanyl overdoses that result in the hospitalization of America’s children.
