Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in the US, but in some places, meth kills more – just another crisis ?

Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in the US, but in some places, meth kills more

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/25/health/fentanyl-deadliest-drug/index.html

Fentanyl remains the deadliest drug in the United States. But in some areas of the country, methamphetamine kills more people.

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A new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics found that fentanyl is the drug most commonly identified in fatal overdoses. In 2017, fentanyl was associated with 38.9% of all drug overdose deaths, an increase from 2016, when it was associated with 29% of all fatal overdoses. This is the second year that CDC analyzed fatal overdoses in this way.
In 2017, heroin was associated with 22.8% of all fatal overdoses. Cocaine, a stimulant, was involved in 21.3% and methamphetamine, also a stimulant, was involved in 13.3%.
Other drugs linked to overdose deaths were benzodiazepines; diphenhydramine, an antihistamine; and gabapentin, an anticonvulsant.
While fentanyl was the most common drug involved in fatal overdoses nationally, there was a geographic divide, the report said. Fentanyl was the drug most likely to be involved in overdoses in states in the eastern United States, but methamphetamine was the drug most associated with overdoses in the western half of the country.
According to the CDC, overdoses death rates involving psychostimulants, including methamphetamines and cocaine, have been rising since 2010. In 2017, the number of people dying from overdoses involving psychostimulants rose above 10,000, an increase of 37% from the year before.
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Methamphetamine was the drug most frequently involved in overdose deaths in the regions that include Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada and Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Typically, fentanyl, along with white powder heroin, has been more common east of the Mississippi River, and Mexican black tar and brown powder heroin has been more commonly found west of the Mississippi.
In 2017, the latest year for which complete data is available, more than 70,000 people died from drug overdoses. Opioids such as fentanyl and heroin represented about 68% of those deaths.

4 Responses

  1. Golly gee I thought it was prescribed medication and pain relief that caused all the overdoses!
    I realize this torture of patients is financially advantageous and allows a few to control the masses, I just wonder why journalists are complicit?? What’s in it for them??

  2. About 40 people overdosed and 4 people died from overdose in my region of the country, which is METH CENTRAL, just a few days ago. A couple of people who used the same crap that so many od’d on came forward and told authorities it was meth (or supposed to be meth), not heroin. Meanwhile the bumbling idiots of that city (Mayor and other useless bureaucrats) are wondering what it was that caused so many od’s. (Seriously, this was a recent news story lol. I guess the tox reports haven’t came back, though I can make a pretty educated guess on what it was). Anyways, yes, meth never went away in my area … and now it’s tainted with illicit fentanyl.

  3. I wonder what it is going to take before there is any fact based policy decision on any of this. The for profit healthcare system, the epidemic of despair, and Neoliberal economic policies combine to cultivate death and despair.

    This is what happens when the corporations take over government regulatory agencies. Without systemic change, this is not going to end. At least a few wealthy individuals, and corporations are making a lot of money here.

    Too bad they turned all of this into a marketing opportunity. The media is not reporting all of the facts either, because they are complicit. They either demonize low income people, or run adversity porn pieces, to give the appearance they are being compassionate.

    This really looks Genocidal, and it is not going to get any better.

  4. Kinda funny how I cant seem to be able to find ANY information written, but the truth on the streets is that illicit Fentanyl is being added to the meth and cocaine just like it is to the heroin. The drug dealers use it to extend the supply and make it much more addictive and the withdrawls are worse than ever. All this so that the drug dealers are guaranteed very addicted customers rushing back for more to avoid withdrawl, that is …….if the live.

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