Experts Predict Fentanyl Crisis to Continue in 2023

Fentanyl is the top cause of overdoses in 2022 and may be responsible for over 80% of overdose deaths. While police have cracked down and increased penalties for fentanyl sales, it continues to flow over the border. Federal authorities believe that 2023 will continue to be marred by fentanyl and that dangerous analogs and other additives may contribute to the misery.

Fentanyl Use Prevention and Treatment Are Working

First, there is some good news on the horizon. More people than ever are accepting help via medical-assisted treatment. As a result, the overdose death rate is slowing, but overdoses have increased, especially among the younger demographics.

People know that there is help if they are addicted, but they may not understand the dangers of fentanyl or how to be safe from them. Measures such as education on fentanyl and counterfeit pills …

Continue ReadingExperts Predict Fentanyl Crisis to Continue in 2023

Critics Say California Resistant to Strengthened Overdose Reversal Drugs

Fentanyl, a drug that is up to 100 times stronger than morphine, has become a common adulterant in street drugs. Officials say this is the reason so many fentanyl encounters result in death; most people don’t mean to take it. When an opioid-naïve user ends up ingesting fentanyl, sometimes the drugs are so potent that normal-strength Naloxone, an opioid reversal drug, has little effect. EMTs have anecdotes of using multiple cans of fentanyl to attempt to bring fentanyl overdoses back to life. However, stronger and more effective opioid-reversal drugs are available.

Fentanyl Overdoses Are Becoming More Common

Fentanyl is now found in cocaine, heroin, speed, and counterfeit pills such as Xanax or Oxycontin. And they’re easier to get than ever. Law enforcement finds drug dealers on Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Signal. When one forum becomes risky to use for …

Continue ReadingCritics Say California Resistant to Strengthened Overdose Reversal Drugs

Fentanyl Overdoses Among The Young Are Killing

Young people are getting back together in real life, and with that socializing comes new experiences. Kids are being kids, pushing boundaries, partying, and rebelling. Snapchat, TikTok, and other apps put things like Molly pills and other club drugs in their hands overnight. Many of the drug dealers drop off packages in mailboxes at night. And the drug users, aged as young as fourteen or as old as in their 30s, don’t have the experience or know-how to test their drugs for fentanyl. And due to their lack of opioid exposure, this leads to overdoses – and death. Teens and young adults are overdosing at record rates.

Why Are Drugs Tainted With Fentanyl?

Nobody knows just one reason for drugs being tainted with fentanyl. Often the powder for club drugs and opioids comes from overseas. Drug dealers may mix the …

Continue ReadingFentanyl Overdoses Among The Young Are Killing

How/Why Are Children Overdosing on Opioids?

Children are overdosing on opioids, but it’s not something that’s being mentioned often. The media often mentions the opioid epidemic regarding addiction that lands people on the streets. The current addiction epidemic is taking place in communities that house lower to middle-class residents. Few news reports tell us about the people who love the addicted that live under the roof each home. Often there are spouses, babies, children, and pets in families affected by opioid addiction.

In 3 and four bedroom homes in counties across America, children are becoming victims of the opioid epidemic in depressing ways. Almost 900 children have died from opiate overdoses since 1999, according to a new study conducted by Julie Gaither, an instructor at the Yale School of Medicine.

Causes of Overdoses

Using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and other data sources, they …

Continue ReadingHow/Why Are Children Overdosing on Opioids?

Fentanyl is Officially America’s Deadliest Drug

According to a new CDC report, deadly fentanyl overdoses are now costing more lives than any other illicit drug. Fentanyl is an opioid similar to morphine, but 50 to 100 times more potent. Doctors use the drug in major surgeries and cancer treatment, but now that it’s become a street drug, drug dealers add it to other drugs like heroin or cocaine.

Fentanyl was the deadliest drug in 2016 according to the CDC, but heroin and oxycodone were the most dangerous in previous years. About 29% of drug overdose deaths involved fentanyl. However, as the drug shows up with other substances, fentanyl has often become a culprit without the user themselves knowing they ingested it. Overdoses of heroin and cocaine have also gone up, which may also be thanks to fentanyl.

Drug use trends aren’t getting better, either. Heroin …

Continue ReadingFentanyl is Officially America’s Deadliest Drug

Articles Highlight Oxy Epidemic in Southern Ohio

We were sent two recent articles about the Oxy epidemic in Ohio.

New York times: Ohio County Losing It’s Young to Painkillers’ Grip

Excerpt:

Such is life in Scioto County, a Southern Ohio county on the Ohio river where a prescription drug epidemic crosses all socioeconomic lines, wrecking young lives from ramshackle trailer parks to cushy suburban homes.

Excerpt:

Fueled in part by a half-dozen legally operating pain clinics that dot Scioto County, doling out an estimated 35 million pills a year…

Thirty five million pills a year prescribed in Scioto County?  A county with a population of 79,499 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau).  That’s 440 pills per person (including babies, children, people who’ve never taken a prescription drug in their lives). Do you think we have an epidemic here?

Cleveland.com: Young Lives Wrecked by Prescription Drug Epidemic in Southern Ohio

Continue ReadingArticles Highlight Oxy Epidemic in Southern Ohio