Breaking

Nov 27, 2021 1 min, 38 secs

The spike of drug overdose deaths this year and last year has many drug abuse and addiction researchers, doctors and health officials worried about a growing trend among overdose victims that appears to indicate a new and different wave of the opioid epidemic. .

While the loneliness and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic appear to have driven drug use, many experts say the latest overdose wave is driven in part by the use of fentanyl with other drugs. ?

The co-use of fentanyl and other drugs distinguishes this wave from the ones that came before it, which were characterized by the growing use of prescription pain medications and then the rise of heroin and fentanyl individually.

Although the trend has been identified, it’s not yet definitive what is causing it: Are drug users knowingly using fentanyl and other drugs, or does fentanyl enter the larger drug supply via dealers and distributors.

“It really could be happening at any point and multiple points along the drug supply chain,” said Kelly Dougherty, Vermont’s deputy health commissioner for alcohol and drug abuse programs.

While Vermont is working to make fentanyl test strips more accessible so users can check whether their drugs are contaminated, Dougherty said users should assume more often than not that any illicit drugs they buy may contain fentanyl.

The Biden administration announced this year that state and local governments can use federal funds to purchase fentanyl test strips in hope of curbing the spike in overdose deaths.

Daniel Ciccarone, an addiction and drug researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, said it remains unclear whether most overdoses are caused by intentional co-use of fentanyl with other drugs or whether contamination or alteration is happening at the dealer level

Brendan Saloner, a Johns Hopkins School of Public Health professor who studies drug addiction and treatment, said fentanyl is beginning to move across the country and affecting communities that haven’t had to address the opioid epidemic in the past. 

RECENT NEWS

SUBSCRIBE

Get monthly updates and free resources.

CONNECT WITH US

© Copyright 2024 365NEWSX - All RIGHTS RESERVED