100,000-plus deadly drug overdoses from april 2020 to april 2021. did the pandemic kill matthew? no. it just intensified. i think he was more emotionally fragile. >> what did the pan emdid for places like kentucky? >> there was a clear and obvious use in use in, overdose in, my metric that you want to use. >> reporter: alex, a former opioid addict, now dedicates his life to studying, understanding and working with the addicted and recovering at lexington's voices of hope. he says the pandemic and the isolation that came with it devastated the addiction community. >> what addiction is in your brain is down regulation of dopamine and what it does is up level dopamine. >> reporter: cheap and