Overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids: Racial/ethnic and educational disparities in the eastern and western US

Racial/ethnic disparities in synthetic opioid mortality rates, relative to the Non-Hispanic (NH) White population, were observed in the NH Black and NH American Indian/Alaska Native populations in the West, and the Puerto Rican  and NH American Indian/Alaska Native populations in the East. Relative to those with a Bachelor’s degree or higher: in the West, the synthetic opioid mortality rate was more than seven times as high for those with a high school diploma only, and in the East, approximately thirteen times as high for those with a high school diploma only or less than a high school diploma.