What's up with the Fentanyl overdoses?

Graphs and sources.

Summary

A quick look at issues with fentanyl.

Overdoses have been increasing since 2015.

Cocaine and heroin are sometimes contaminated with fentanyl, and sometimes this is enough to kill a person many times over.

Fentanyl coming into the US is so strong, even if you don’t see it, if you touch it it can kill you. This is why some states make police carry Narcan kits to combat the fentanyl poisoning.

North Carolina Reports 40% Increase in Overdose Deaths in 2020 Compared to 2019; NCDHHS Continues Fight Against Overdose Epidemic. https://www.ncdhhs.gov/news/press-releases/2022/03/21/north-carolina-reports-40-increase-overdose-deaths-2020-compared-2019-ncdhhs-continues-fight-against

Overdose deaths exploded to more than 90,000 in 2020, and synthetic opioids were involved in more than 60 percent of all overdose deaths. Overdose deaths spiked at the start of the pandemic and stayed high through the end of 2020. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2021/drug-overdose-toll-2020-and-near-term-actions-addressing-it

From Pew Trust: Opioid overdose, misuse, and dependence cost each year: $35 billion in annual health care costs, $14.8 billion in criminal justice costs, $92 billion in lost productivity. https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/data-visualizations/2021/the-high-price-of-the-opioid-crisis-2021

Additional Sources

CDC graph shows overdoses by drug class, but does not count drugs contaminated with fentanyl. Overdose classes include cocaine, heroin, opioids. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/drug-overdose-data.htm

CDC drug overdose rate maps. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html

Injury facts drug overdoses. This one has a graph where you can choose “opioids including fentanyl”. For 2020 for “opioids including fentanyl” the overdose count was 53480. https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/drugoverdoses/data-details/

For New Jersey only go to https://ocsme.nj.gov/Dashboard. Then find the graph, then click the header “Confirmed drugs” to change the graph. There are 2 lines, Fentanyl and Fentanyl analogues. For 2020, fentanyl deaths are at 2336.

The Opioid Crisis in Illinois. From 2019? https://www.dhs.state.il.us/OneNetLibrary/27896/documents/OpioidCrisisInIllinois_051617.pdf

US DEA and fentanyl awareness page. https://www.dea.gov/fentanylawareness

Over 96,700 people die each year from a drug overdose. https://drugabusestatistics.org/drug-overdose-deaths/