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Drug overdoses killed about 72,000 Americans last year, a record number that reflects a rise of around 10 percent, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The death toll is higher than the peak yearly death totals from H.I.V., car crashes or gun deaths. Analysts pointed to two major reasons for the increase: A growing number of Americans are using opioids, and drugs are becoming more deadly. It is the second factor that most likely explains the bulk of the increased number of overdoses last year. (Sanger-Katz, 8/15)

More than 40,000 people died from opioid overdoses last year, and nearly 30,000 people died from overdoses of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. The overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids rose sharply from 2016, while deaths from heroin, prescription opioid pills and methadone fell, the CDC said. (Weixel, 8/15)

The increase was driven primarily by a continued surge in deaths involving synthetic opioids, a category that includes fentanyl. There were nearly 30,000 deaths involving those drugs in 2017, according to the preliminary data, an increase of more than 9,000 over the prior year. Deaths involving cocaine also shot up significantly, putting the stimulant on par with drugs such as heroin and the category of natural opiates that includes painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone. One potential spot of good news is that deaths involving those latter two drug categories appear to have flattened out, suggesting the possibility that opiate mortality may be at or nearing its peak. (Ingraham, 8/15)

Hour after hour, people kept dropping. Sirens blared. There were so many overdoses — people passed out, vomiting, convulsing — that emergency workers could hardly sprint fast enough to keep up. “Even while we were trying to return people to service, they were passing victims on the ground,” Fire Chief John Alston told reporters. Over the course of 24 hours in New Haven, Conn., Wednesday, more than 70 people overdosed on what authorities believe to be synthetic marijuana, also known as K2 or spice. Dozens of those overdoses took place on the New Haven Green, a historic downtown park bordering the Yale University campus. (Schmidt, 8/16)

A park in the shadow of Yale’s Old Campus became the scene of a mass overdose on Wednesday as ambulance crews rushed from person to person, desperately treating dozens of semiconscious and disoriented drug users in New Haven. More than 70 people overdosed in the city during a 24-hour span, beginning Tuesday evening, and the authorities said they suspect a virulent batch of synthetic marijuana, possibly laced with an opioid, was the cause. (Linton, 8/16)

Governor Chris Sununu and state Health Commissioner Jeff Meyers on Wednesday announced a major overhaul of New Hampshire's addiction treatment infrastructure. The state will funnel tens of millions in newly available federal funds into a coordinated system of care that tracks patients for months, if not years, through their recovery. (Greene, 8/15)

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona announced Tuesday that it will be investing $10 million over the next three years in an initiative to help reduce opioid misuse in the state. At least two people per day have died of an opioid overdose in Arizona since June 15, 2017, when the state began collecting opioid data. (Innes, 8/15)