The prescription drug is primarily used to treat severe pain in people who are tolerant to other opioids. The body adapts to the drug, and the person must take higher doses to feel the same effect. Florida (5,083) and New York (4,950) had the second and third most total deaths.
What is fentanyl and why is it so dangerous?
- This will enable them to respond to these signs in a rapid manner, alerting emergency services and preventing loss of life.
- Manipulating these patches by poking, cutting or chewing them can cause an unsafe amount of the drug to enter the body.
- This review has established that chronic drug addicts have greater tendencies to misuse the drug.
A structured data https://ecosoberhouse.com/ extraction tool was used to extract data on the number of deaths, routes of administration, concomitant drug use and toxicological data. The Joanna Briggs Institute quality assessment tool was used to evaluate the quality of included studies. What you are describing is a polysubstance use, or a mixing of drugs, and that is a particularly dangerous practice. Some studies have shown that up to half of all deaths by overdose included the mixed use of drugs.
Understanding the Opioid Overdose Epidemic
Drug policy experts, and people living with addiction, say the magnitude of this calamity now eclipses every previous drug epidemic, from the 1980s to the prescription opioid crisis of the 2000s. Drug dealers may mix fentanyl with other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, meth, and MDMA to increase the drugs’ effects — sometimes without the user’s knowledge. Illicit (illegal) fentanyl is often smuggled into the US in powder form and may be pressed into fake pills or mixed with other drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine (“meth”).
In 2023, a growing backlash against “de-stigmatizing” drug use
Dasgupta, the researcher at the University of North Carolina, agreed more needs to be done to help people in addiction recover when they’re ready. Some cells can enter a ‘third state that lies beyond the traditional boundaries of life and death.’ Here’s how. American Addiction Centers (AAC) is committed to delivering original, truthful, accurate, unbiased, and medically current information. We strive to create content that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. If you or someone you love struggle with fentanyl or other substance use disorder and you’re ready to get help, call American Addiction Centers (AAC) today at . Speak with one of our knowledgeable and compassionate admission navigators, who will listen to your story, answer your questions, explain your options, verify your insurance (or talk to you about other ways to pay), and help you start your recovery journey.
While it’s true that the illicit use of fentanyl is a serious health concern in the United States, myths about fentanyl overdoses have been largely sensationalized. “This year overdose deaths in Ohio are down 31 percent,” said Dennis Couchon, how long does iv fentanyl stay in your system a harm reduction activist. Indeed, in many states in the eastern and central U.S. where improvements are largest, the sudden drop in drug deaths stunned some observers who lived through the darkest days of the fentanyl overdose crisis. Other experts pointed to the end of the COVID pandemic, combined with the high number of people who have already died from drug overdoses, as possible causes of the abrupt change.
Symptoms of fentanyl overdose
And with users unaware of how much fentanyl they are using, it’s an especially dangerous combination. The DEA found that 6 out of 10 fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. In 2022, 73,654 people died from a fentanyl overdose1 in the US, more than double the amount of deaths from three years prior in 2019.
