Overdose deaths from fentanyl-laced stimulants have risen 50-fold since 2010, according to a recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal "Addiction." This, along with many other factors, showcases how dangerous the fentanyl epidemic is in the United States.
The study found that the proportion of overdose deaths involving fentanyl and stimulants, such as cocaine or meth, has gone from 235 deaths in 2010 to 34,429 deaths in 2021, according to a press release. This rise in stimulant-fentanyl deaths has led some to believe that this is the fourth wave of America’s opioid crisis.
It is usually believed that the first wave of the opioid epidemic was in the early 2000s with the increase of deaths from prescription opioids, according to HealthDay News. This was followed by a shift to illegal heroin usage around 2010, and the third wave was another shift to fentanyl in 2013. This current fourth wave was believed to have started sometime around 2015.
The study had other findings, such as the geographic differences between what substances were being mixed with fentanyl, as in the northeast it was largely cocaine and in the south and west it is most commonly mixed with methamphetamine. It was also found that fentanyl/stimulant mixing overdose deaths disproportionately affected minority groups, specifically blacks and Native Americans.
An author of the study, Chelsea Shover, said that a lot of this mixing is likely intentional and that fentanyl is so strong that small errors in dosage or potency could lead to an overdose.
Joseph Friedman, another author of the study, stated that this mixing of substances, many of them synthetic, is leading to even more issues for users and those treating them. Friedman said at this point there is a lot of data on how to treat opioid users, but not nearly as much on how to treat users who use multiple substances.
The study this information was gathered on was funded by the UCLA Medical Scientist Training Program and the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, according to a release.
Over the past several years, the number of fentanyl seizures at the U.S.-Mexico border has increased dramatically, increasing 164% from 2020 to 2022, according to The Wilson Center. The amount seized this year eclipses last year already, as about 21,846 pounds of fentanyl has been seized at the border as of late August, compared to 14,104 pounds in all of 2022. It is believed that fentanyl is now the second most-seized illegal substance at the border, behind methamphetamine.
The Drug Enforcement Agency has said that the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels are the main suppliers of illegal fentanyl in the United States and that defeating them is a “top operational priority.” The DEA recently concluded a year-long operation investigating these cartels and their U.S. networks that resulted in 3,337 arrests and the seizure of nearly 44 million fentanyl pills and more than 6,500 pounds of fentanyl powder.
