Coast to coast, major U.S. cities are seeing measurable drops in drug overdose deaths. Public health officials welcome the news despite an inability to fully explain the decrease.
After years of rising, the tide may finally be turning on deadly drug overdoses in America.
Drug overdose deaths fell 12.7% in the 12 months ending in May, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This is the largest recorded reduction in overdose deaths,” White House officials said in a statement. “And the sixth consecutive month of reported decreases in predicted 12-month total numbers of drug overdose deaths.”
It’s also the first time since early 2021 that the number of estimated drug overdose deaths for a 12-month period fell below 100,000, to 98,820.
It’s categorically good news. It’s also a bit puzzling to the public health experts who have been working for years to stop the upward trajectory of opioid deaths, driven primarily by fentanyl.
Public and first responder access to Narcan. Paramedic and I haven’t had to administer it in months thanks to bystanders, law enforcement and fire rescue getting it on board before I arrive
I went to pick a prescription at my local Walmart today (texas) and they had a sign saying that they have narcan or noloxone available. My guess is the easy access to narcan and the awareness of it nowadays.
Nobody I know will even buy weed off the street anymore because of fentanyl. I’m willing to guess people are hyper aware of it, no matter what their drugs of choice are.
Nobody is putting fentanyl into your weed. It’s financially irresponsible to put a more expensive drug into a less expensive drug and kill your customers with it. And drug dealers care about their money beyond all else, they aren’t going to fuck up their own business. Not only do they want you to come back for more later, they’re definitely not out sourcing fentanyl and then selling it at weed prices, if you want the fenty weed, you damn well better pay up for it.
People getting fentanyl and not knowing it are buying cheap heroin. Because that’s what it is. It’s a heroin analogue that’s way stronger and can be sold cheaper because a nano speck of it is like 4 doses vs an 8-ball of good smack being one or two.
If you buy street weed and it has fentanyl in it and you didn’t ask for it specifically, someone is trying to kill you in particular.
Fentanyl in weed can be a thing though. Scales used by dealers who are weighing different drugs, aren’t necessarily cleaning the scale between use. Cocaine is the bigger offender in that scenario though, and can definitely lead to a way easier overdose than weed would
You know, that’s a good point. I was approaching this from a “nobody would do this on purpose” perspective, and while I do still stand by my point, yours isn’t one I considered.
Where I grew up, every third too-stoned teenager would be like “maaaaan, this weed is laced with acid” and, no, it never was, and there’s like three different really good reasons why it never was. The “street weed can have fentanyl in it!! You could die!!” people have been, in my experience, overwhelmingly that same group.
But that said though you make a very compelling point for simple negligence being the source of those stories.
“maaaaan, this weed is laced with acid” and, no, it never was, and there’s like three different really good reasons why it never was.
Not to mention lacing weed with LSD would do absolutely jack shit unless you ate it raw. (Heat would destroy the LSD before it ever had a chance to reach your neuronal clefts.)
I actually know of a young couple in my town who died from fentanyl in their weed. I went and told everyone I knew (and linked them the obits) to warn them to stop buying street weed (it’s illegal here) and make sure they’re getting it safe.
Terrifying stuff.
And people are testing their drugs for fentanyl now because of that hyper awareness. Public awareness, easier access to narcan, and fentanyl test strips are probably big contributors to the decrease in OD deaths
I’ve seen that as well, along with various methods of testing/purifying becoming common depending on the compound.
Because druggies are dying and are not being replaced fast enough
Quality/purity of fentanyl in Norcal has gone way down recently apparently. https://sfstandard.com/2024/08/12/fentanyl-soap-purity/ at least here I’m sure that is a major contributing factor
Hypothesis: More people are waiting to see who wins the presidential election before deciding if overdosing is the best escape plan.
I think it’s as simple as education at all levels. More people carry narcan. Dealers are selling lower purity stuff. Imitation pills are becoming better measured with less dosage fluctuations. Less people are doing hard drugs in the first place.
The article isn’t loading for me, but only looking at the past few months or years isn’t indicative of a larger trend, because COVID caused outliers in just about every data set. I’ll believe it if it’s down compared to 2010 and earlier.
Edit: it loaded, and yeah when they compare to 2018 it’s similar or slightly down. So it’s just returning to pre-covid levels.
