L.I.F.E. CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP INC.

Fentanyl (OPIOD) Crisis Expanding 

3/21/23 First Editorial

Compiled by Bishop Dr. Clarence McClain, BA, M-Div., MACL, D-Div.

Keywords: opioids, fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine

Fentanyl Crisis Expanding Westward: California Rehab Warns of Increased Overdose Deaths in the State

COSTA MESA, Calif., Sept. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid responsible for most drug overdoses, is increasing in the western United States. Addiction experts warn that this could accelerate overdose deaths in the region. They urge people struggling with dependence to seek help finding sobriety.

Resurgence Behavioral Health

The CDC recently released preliminary statistics showing that drug overdose death increased by almost 30 percent in 2020. Deaths rose from 72,113 in 2019 to 93,331, an increase of 29.4 percent. The agency is tracking increased deaths in the West and Southeast, where law enforcement officials say they are confiscating increasingly illegal fentanyl.

"These reports indicate that increases in fentanyl-involved overdose deaths are driving increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths," the agency says, "and the source of the fentanyl is more likely to be illicitly manufactured than pharmaceutical." Fentanyl is a potent synthetic opioid drug that is up to 100 times more powerful than morphine. They are prescribed legally for "breakthrough pain" – pain that is too intense to respond to standard medication.  They're also manufactured and sold illicitly. Illegal versions have become increasingly popular because they're cheap and easy to transport on skin patches or oral tablets. Fentanyl’s often added to heroin and other drugs without users' knowledge.

Tragically, many who died from drug overdoses might have been helped if they had found effective treatment. The CDC says more than three in five people who died from drug overdoses "had an identified opportunity for linkage to care or life-saving actions."

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), the use of medications to reduce cravings for opioids and blunt their effects if used, has also become a powerful tool in treating opioid addiction. Substance abuse and other psychological disorders related to substance abuse usually require some form of in-patient treatment. Rehabilitation should include counseling in life skills designed to instill healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with circumstances that contribute to addiction.

Drug Overdose Deaths Remain High

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Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2019, 70,630 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by over 4% from 2018 (20.7 per 100,000) to 2019 (21.6 per 100,000).

• Opioids—mainly synthetic opioids (besides methadone)—are the primary driver of drug overdose deaths. 72.9% of opioid-involved overdose deaths involved synthetic opioids.

• Opioids were involved in 49,860 overdose deaths in 2019 (70.6% of all drug overdose deaths).

• Drug overdose deaths involving psychostimulants such as methamphetamine are increasing with and without synthetic opioid involvement.2

Drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids and methamphetamine have shifted geographically.

• From 2018 to 2019, the most significant increase in death rates involving synthetic opioids occurred in the West (67.9%).

• The most significant increase in death rates involving psychostimulants occurred in the Northeast (43.8%).

• Previously, the East had the highest increases in deaths involving synthetic opioids, and the Midwest had the highest increases in deaths involving psychostimulants.

• No state experienced a significant decrease from 2018-2019.

Synthetic Opioid Overdose Data

In 2019, more than 36,000 deaths involving synthetic opioids (other than methadone) occurred in the United States, more deaths than from any other type of opioid. Synthetic opioid-involved death rates increased by over 15% from 2018 to 2019 and accounted for nearly 73% of all opioid-involved deaths in 2019. The rate of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids was more than 11 times higher in 2019 than in 2013.

Previous reports have indicated that increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths have been associated with the number of drug submissions obtained by law enforcement that test positive for fentanyl but not with fentanyl prescribing rates. These reports indicate that increases in fentanyl-involved overdose deaths are driving increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths. The source of fentanyl is more likely to be illicitly manufactured than pharmaceutical.

There are also fentanyl analogs, such as acetyl fentanyl and carfentanil, which are similar in chemical structure to fentanyl but not routinely detected because specialized toxicology testing is required. Recent surveillance has also identified other emerging synthetic opioids, such as U-47700.  Estimates of the potency of fentanyl analogs vary from less potent than fentanyl to much more powerful. Still, there is some uncertainty because the strength of illicitly manufactured fentanyl analogs has not been evaluated in humans. Carfentanil, the most potent fentanyl analog detected in the U.S., is estimated to be 10,000 times more potent than morphine. 

US overdose deaths topped 100,000 in one year, officials say

MIKE STOBBE  November 17, 2021, 11:26 AM

NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in one year, a never-before-seen milestone that health officials say is tied to the COVID-19 pandemic and a more dangerous drug supply.

Overdose deaths have been rising for over two decades, accelerated in the past two years, and, according to new data posted in a 2021 article, jumped nearly 30% in the latest year. President Joe Biden called it “a tragic milestone” in a statement, as administration officials pressed Congress to devote billions of dollars more to address the problem. “This is unacceptable, and it requires an unprecedented response,” said Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of National Drug Control Policy. Experts believe the top drivers of overdose deaths are the growing prevalence of deadly fentanyl in the illicit drug supply and The Covid 19 Pandemic, which left many drug users socially isolated and unable to get treatment or other support.

The number is “devastating,” said Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University expert on drug abuse issues. “It’s a magnitude of overdose death that we haven’t seen in this country." 

Drug overdoses now surpass deaths from car crashes, guns, and even flu and pneumonia. The total is close to that for diabetes, the nation's No. 7 cause of death.  Drawing from the latest available death certificate data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 100,300 Americans died of drug overdoses from May 2020 to April 2021. It's not an official count. Death investigations involving drug fatalities can take many months to become final, so the agency made the estimate based on 98,000 reports it has received. The CDC reported about 93,000 overdose deaths in 2020, the highest number recorded in a calendar year. Robert Anderson, the CDC's chief of mortality statistics, said the 2021 tally would likely surpass 100,000.

The new data shows many of the deaths involved illicit fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid that five years ago surpassed heroin as the type of drug involved in the most overdose deaths. Dealers have Mixed Fentanyl with other drugs — one reason that deaths from Methamphetamines and Cocaine also are rising. 

Drug cartels in Mexico are using chemicals from China to mass produce and distribute fentanyl and meth across America, said Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

This year, the DEA has seized 12,000 pounds of fentanyl, a record amount, Milgram said. But public health experts and even police officials say that law enforcement measures will not stop the epidemic, and more needs to be done to dampen demand and prevent deaths.

The CDC has not yet calculated the racial and ethnic breakdowns of the overdose victims. 

It found that the estimated death toll rose in all but four states — Delaware, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and South Dakota — compared with the same period a year earlier. The states with the most significant increases were Vermont (70%), West Virginia (62%), and Kentucky (55%). Minnesota saw an increase of about 39%, with estimated overdose deaths rising to 1,188 in May 2020 through April 2021 from 858 in the previous 12-month period. The area around Mankato has seen its count of overdose deaths rise from two in 2019 to six last year to sixteen this year, said police Lt. Jeff Wersal, who leads a regional drug task force, said. “I honestly don't see it getting any better soon,” 

Among the victims was Travis Gustavson, who died at the age of 21 in Mankato. His blood was found to show signs of fentanyl, heroin, marijuana, and the sedative Xanax, Wersal said. Gustavson was close to his mother, two brothers, and the rest of his family, said his grandmother, Nancy Sack. 

He was known for his easy smile, she said. “He could be crying when he was a little guy, but if someone smiled at him, he immediately stopped crying and smiled back,” she recalled. Gustavson first tried drugs as a kid and had been to drug treatment as a teenager, Sack said. He struggled with anxiety and depression but mainly used marijuana and various kinds of pills, she said. Travis had a tooth pulled the morning he died, but Sack said he wasn't prescribed strong painkillers because of his drug history. He told his mother he would stay home and ride out the pain with ibuprofen. She said he was expecting a visit from his girlfriend that night to watch a movie. But Gustavson contacted Max Leo Miller, also 21, who provided him with a bag containing heroin and fentanyl, according to police. Some details of what happened are in dispute, but all accounts suggest Gustavson was new to heroin and fentanyl. Police say Gustavson and Miller exchanged messages on social media. At one point, Gustavson sent a photo of a line of a white substance on a brown table, asked if he was taking the right amount, and then wrote, “Or bigger?”  

His friend was not his friend, and the answer should have been no. According to a police report, Miller responded: “Smaller bro,” and “Be careful, please!”