CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Opioid overdose deaths increased by 22 percent in the state according to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
In 2021, 4,041 people in North Carolina died from overdoses. That number is the highest ever recorded in the state in a single year. In 2020, there were 3,304 deaths; in 2019, there were about one thousand fewer than that.
According to the health department, the main culprit is fentanyl which was likely involved in 77 percent of deaths.
UNC students can fight the opioid epidemic by being equipped with the life-saving drug Narcan, which temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose. It can be picked up anonymously, free of charge, and without a prescription at the Student Stores Pharmacy and Campus Health Pharmacy.