Back in 2014, over 4,200 people have died from a fentanyl overdose, more than double the number of reported cases in 2013 wherein there were only 1905 fentanyl-related deaths.
Fentanyl prescriptions aren’t the problem
While fentanyl is still a legal prescription drug, prescriptions are not to blame when it comes to the alarmingly high cases of deaths from overdose.
According to Adam Bisaga, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, “Fentanyl is a particularly dramatic increase in overdose deaths, even though the prescribing of fentanyl has not increased. So most likely, fentanyl is coming from outside the official market. We’re talking about illicit fentanyl that’s being brought to this country”
The shift to fentanyl from heroin reflects a pattern wherein patients initially get addicted to prescription painkillers and then switch to street drugs such as fentanyl or heroin to get their high. It has also been reported that some of these street drugs are so potent, that police officers have even been warned not to handle them since they can be deadly even when touched.
Drugs kill more people than car crashes
Since 1999, drug overdose cases have slowly been increasing. Currently, drugs kill more people than car crashes, and the cases just keep piling up.
In 2015, there were 11% more reported cases of drug overdoses compared to 2014, amounting to about 5,400 additional cases. Deaths caused by fentanyl went up by an alarmingly high 72%, while deaths from heroin also went up by 20%.
Adam Bisaga adds, “It just confirms what we are seeing in the clinic. And we’re seeing it on a national scale. There’s a significant increase since only a few years ago.”
He advocates a shift towards changing the way that the government handles drug addiction. He shares, “Unless you change the system unless you change how the providers think about treating this disorder, it’s going to have limited impact.”
Sources: huffingtonpost.com, webmd.com, medscape.com
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