--- title: Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016 description: New federal data shows that fatal drug overdoses involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl doubled each year between 2013 and 2016. canonical: https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-12T14:50:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T22:15:11.013Z article:section: Health og:title: Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016 og:description: According to a new federal report og:url: https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01c870da33e56ee4/69894155457a5282dcd60224/fentanyl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7360 og:image:height: 4140 og:image:alt: Heroin Samples At The State Drug Lab In Ohio og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016 twitter:description: According to a new federal report twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01c870da33e56ee4/69894155457a5282dcd60224/fentanyl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016 > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=83472998-f6cd-4c4d-b0cc-fc9f79ff6b12&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 12, 2018 2:50 PM UTC  A small bag of straight Fentanyl on display at the State Crime Lab at the Ohio Attorney General's headquarters of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 in London, Ohio. A small bag of straight Fentanyl on display at the State Crime Lab at the Ohio Attorney General's headquarters of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation on Wednesday, September 16, 2015 in London, Ohio. The Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 12, 2018 2:50 PM UTC Drug overdose deaths involving the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl are on the rise, and the number of fentanyl-related deaths roughly doubled each year from 2013 through 2016, according to new federal data. Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) reviewed death certificates filed from 2011 to 2016 to find out which drugs were mentioned most frequently each year. During this time period, [drug overdose deaths](http://time.com/5220372/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc/) increased from 41,340 in 2011 to 63,632 in 2016. Just as striking as the overall uptick, however, was the sharp increase in deaths involving fentanyl. Fentanyl was mentioned in about 1,600 U.S. death certificates in both 2011 and 2012, according to the NCHS’ review. In 2013, that number rose slightly to 1,919\. But by 2014, it had roughly doubled to 4,223 — a trend that continued in 2015 (8,251) and 2016 (18,335). By 2016, fentanyl was involved in about 29% of all fatal drug overdoses and had overtaken [heroin](http://time.com/5281371/dear-dealer-sister-fentanyl-overdose/) — which was the most commonly cited drug in the death certificates of people who had died from overdoses from 2012-2015 — as the substance most frequently involved in drug deaths. Cocaine ranked second or third in each year included in the study, and the prescription opioid [oxycodone](http://time.com/5351906/opioid-prescriptions-sprained-ankles/) was the leading drug in 2011\. Many fatalities also involved multiple drugs, the report says. While the new study left off at 2016, recent [CDC data](http://time.com/5464607/us-life-expectancy-2017/) showed that the rate of drug overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids increased by 45% between 2016 and 2017 — evidence that these potent narcotics are not going away. Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were involved in nearly 30,000 overdoses last year, out of a total of about 70,000, [according to federal estimates](https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates). Fentanyl is involved in so many overdoses because of its high potency; it is [80 to 100 times stronger than morphine](https://www.dea.gov/factsheets/fentanyl), and even a small amount can be lethal. Drugs such as heroin and cocaine are increasingly being laced with fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, causing many drug users to [consume fatal doses by mistake](http://time.com/5350490/demi-lovato-drug-relapse-dangers/). Lawmakers and public health officials have made it a priority to reduce both supply of and demand for synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Most recently, China — which is believed to be the primary source of U.S. fentanyl — pledged to classify fentanyl and all of its chemically similar analogs as controlled substances, which would in theory stem their flow into the U.S. Whether the policy actually results in fewer overdose deaths, however, [remains to be seen](http://time.com/5469231/china-fentanyl-controlled-substance/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/"},"headline":"Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016","datePublished":"2018-12-12T14:50:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T22:15:11.013Z","description":"It was the drug involved in the most overdoses in 2016","url":"https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/","keywords":["Public Health","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01c870da33e56ee4/69894155457a5282dcd60224/fentanyl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt01c870da33e56ee4/69894155457a5282dcd60224/fentanyl1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Heroin Samples At The State Drug Lab In Ohio","caption":"Heroin Samples At The State Drug Lab In Ohio","creditText":"The Washington Post—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/public-health/","name":"Public Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5477073/fentanyl-overdose-deaths/","name":"Overdose Deaths Involving Fentanyl Doubled Every Year From 2013 to 2016"}}]}] ```