email article Overdose deaths involving both opioids and either cocaine or psychostimulants were rising long before anyone heard of COVID-19, a National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) report showed. From 2009 to 2019, deaths involving both cocaine and opioids rose more quickly than those involving cocaine but not opioids, reported Holly Hedegaard, MD, of the NCHS Division of Analysis and Epidemiology, and co-authors, in an From 2009 to 2019, the rate of overdose deaths involving both cocaine and opioids jumped from 0.7 to 3.8 per 100,000, while overdose deaths involving cocaine without opioids increased from 0.7 to 1.1, Hedegaard and co-authors said. In 2019, 76% of cocaine-related overdose deaths also involved an opioid. This varied by region, from 83% in the Northeast to 63% in the West.