Forty states have seen drug overdose rates decline over the past year as the epidemic that has choked the United States for decades appears to have eased.
Nationally, overdose deaths fell about 10 percent in the year ending April 2024 compared with the prior-year period, from more than 112,000 to about 101,000.
North Carolina and Nebraska led the charge, with declines measuring 23 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Alaska bucked the trend and overdoses increased by 42 percent. The reasoning is unclear, but it could be because remote areas have less access to treatment.
The national decline is It is believed to be related to increased access to addiction-fighting medications such as buprenorphine and Narcan, and the bombardment of public health messages about the dangers of fentanyl.
Still others have proposed a more morbid theory: that the fentanyl crisis has been so catastrophic that it has simply run out of people to kill.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the Washington Post: “This has not happened by accident.”
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Overdose rates skyrocketed during the Covid pandemic, when millions of people suddenly lost access to in-person counseling and medication-assisted treatment.
Forced isolation also likely exacerbated people’s cravings combined with mental health issues.
Pre-pandemic, in 2019, about 72,000 people died for overdose in the US
In 2020, that number skyrocketed to around 94,000. In 2021, it rose again to 109,000, and again in 2022 to around 111,000.
But in 2023, the number dropped slightly to about 108,000.
The latest drop is the most recent since a slight drop in early spring 2022.
Behind Nebraska and North Carolina, which showed the steepest drops in overdose deaths, are states that have been devastated by opioids. Vermont came in third with a 19.4 percent decrease.
After Vermont came Ohio, with a drop of 19.3 percent, followed by Pennsylvania with a drop of 18.6 percent, and then Indiana, with a drop of 18 percent.
Western states did not fare as well. In addition to Alaska seeing a 42 percent increase in overdose deaths, Oregon saw a 22.3 percent increase and Nevada saw an 18.2 percent increase.
Washington came in fourth with a 13.8 percent increase, followed by Utah with 8.1 percent.
More people than ever are aware (and afraid) of the dangers of fentanyl, according to Austin Wynn, who runs Never Alone Recovery, a free source for people facing addiction to find rehabilitation and intervention assistance.
Public health messages, whether they come from government officials, advocates or the media, appear to be having an impact.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I think fear has been a factor driving some people to take different measures. I’ll just tell you what I tell parents: the likelihood of them dying from any illicit drug today, I would say, is at least 10 times greater than it was a few years ago.’
Wynn added: “There’s a lot of sensationalism in the news, which I don’t particularly agree with all the time.”
“But this is something that, as ironic as it is, I don’t think was sensational enough.”
“Now we hear stories like in California, where two or three years ago there was a large area where children were buying marijuana laced with fentanyl. I know of cases in the Chicago area where cocaine is involved.
Doctors are also increasingly prescribing medications such as buprenorphine and suboxone, which reduce opioid cravings by only partially activating opioid receptors in the brain, although not as strongly as heroin or fentanyl would.
By doing this, the user still feels some pain relief and euphoria, but at much lower levels, which ends up reducing cravings for more.
However, access to this type of medication is dispersed and its use remains too low considering how many people would benefit.
Still, recipes are increasing. Between 2016 and 2021, buprenorphine prescriptions increased by 36 percentreaching almost 13.9 million, while the number of doctors who prescribed buprenorphine increased significantly by 86 percent, reaching around 59,000.
Center City Philadelphia has long been a magnet for drug users looking for their next high, but the magnitude of the problems caused by xylazine is shocking even to locals who have become accustomed to such scenes. distressing
Buprenorphine has a “ceiling effect,” meaning that once a specific dose is reached, taking more will not intensify its effects.
As a result, if someone uses a stronger opioid while taking buprenorphine, they will not experience the usual effect.
Additionally, because buprenorphine partially activates opioid receptors, it helps prevent withdrawal symptoms, making it easier for people to stop using stronger opioids.
Historically, healthcare workers have been hesitant to use medications to treat addiction due to a general lack of resources, as well as a shortage of professionals qualified and knowledgeable enough to prescribe them.
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For those who have not sought medication-assisted treatment, the overdose-reversing drug Narcan has already saved about 27,000 lives, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Narcan, also known as naloxone, is an opioid antagonist. It is used by inserting the nozzle of the medication into the nose and spraying it when someone is in the early stages of an overdose.
Narcan became available without a prescription in March 2023. Since then, the life-saving nasal spray has been stocked in vending machines, nightclubs, bars, and even schools.
When inhaled, the medication is absorbed through the mucous membranes of the nose, quickly enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain.
Once there, the medication competes with opioids and attaches to receptors in the brain. It attaches to the brain receptors and replaces the opioid.
This mitigates the effects of opioids on the brain, preventing an overdose from progressing.
The CDC chart shows a 10 percent drop in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2024, with about 101,000 people succumbing to overdoses.
Public health experts posit that a combination of messaging, increased awareness and better access to recovery resources is driving this downward trend.
Another factor raised by Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, an addiction expert at the University of Washington, is the possibility that fentanyl has surpassed its peak number of victims.
He told local news station KUOW: “There are only so many people who take a drug, and when you have such a high fatality rate, eventually, in a really horrible way, it will start to self-extinguish like a forest.” fire.
‘So it’s literally burning the fuel. The horrible thing in this case is that the fuel is the people.”
Wynn, for his part, believes this theory is too simplistic.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘At the end of the day, less fentanyl in the world means, ideally, fewer deaths. But could it be argued that then more people would be willing to try and use drugs because there are fewer deaths? So it’s kind of like Schrodinger’s cat situation.
‘And I think that could be a dangerous question because, even if it were true, does it matter? Because what we don’t want is for people to say, well, it’s going to happen anyway. Let’s hope it happens.
