Opioid crisis costs US $1.5TRILLION in 2020 as fentanyl use rocketed during the pandemic

The devastating opioid epidemic in the US cost the government nearly $1.5 trillion in 2020 alone after being exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and the rise of fentanyl, new figures show.

There were a record of 69,000 deaths of potent painkillers that year alone – a figure that rose to a new high of more than 75,000 in 2021.

Officials said the opioid crisis, which has been rising for decades, reached its peak during the pandemic when lockdowns and hospital closures made people particularly vulnerable to addiction.

Those who had drug habits and didn’t know where to go for help and those who were used to being treated in person suddenly couldn’t meet their caregivers in person.

The damage caused by the pandemic has been accompanied by a torrent of fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid up to 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin. The cheap drug is pouring into the US at astonishing rates, contaminating the drugs sold on the streets.

The economic toll of opioids for 2020 is up 37 percent from 2017, the last year costs were measured by federal authorities.

The latest figures were revealed in a report issued by the Congressional Joint Economic Committee this week.

The death toll that year — which averaged 44 deaths a day — was the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of Americans crashing every day with no survivors, said Maryland Democrat David Trone, who is on the committee responsible for the report.

The committee believes that the social unrest during the pandemic may have prompted people to switch from dealers who were more likely to sell fentanyl due to changing patterns of drug smuggling.

The committee came to its conclusion after estimating the costs of health care, criminal law and productivity loss.

“Pandemic-related stress and additional barriers to care have also likely led to a higher relapse rate in those struggling with opioid use,” the report said.

It went on, “Factors such as self-isolation and the economic shock of the pandemic were linked to higher levels of stress, anxiety and other mental health problems, which worsened conditions for people with substance use disorders.”

The committee used the same methodology as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its 2017 economic impact estimate. .

Isolation due to mandatory quarantine in 2020 sparked a surge in drug overdose deaths of more than 91,000 that year alone. Opioids were involved in nearly three-quarters of all overdose deaths that year. The 2021 total surpassed that of the previous year by about 107,000 deaths, of which 75 percent involved opioids.

Comparison of overdose rates between Jan. 2020 and Jan. 2021

The CDC includes deaths from fentanyl in the total number of deaths from opioids. A national total of fentanyl overdoses is not available, but several states have taken it upon themselves to quantify those deaths.

In WisconsinFor example, last year synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, were identified in 91 percent of opioid overdose deaths and 73 percent of all drug overdose deaths.

Opioids, especially the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl and its analogues, have caused the crisis of fatal overdoses. An infinitesimal amount of fentanyl sprinkled into the drug supply can be fatal.

US authorities have been on high alert in recent years amid a deluge of illegal fentanyl entering the country. More than 11,200 pounds of fentanyl were seized from customs and border guards in 2021, an increase of 134% from the previous year.

Authorities seized in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone more than 2 million pills with fentanyl, up from about 42,000 pills in the first quarter of 2018, up 4,850%.

Most of the fentanyl entering the US was synthesized in clandestine labs in China, India and Mexico. Mexican drug cartels are transporting significant quantities of the drug in pill and powder form across the US border.

The dark web has also facilitated access to the drug in powder or pill form by sending it directly to consumers by mail.

Fentanyl can be sold on its own but is often used to contaminate other drugs. Due to its low cost and high potency, dealers can trade more of it without sacrificing the drug effects that their buyers expect. Many people have died of fentanyl poisoning without even knowing they had ingested fentanyl.

President Joe Biden has professed his goal of remedying the epidemic that originated in the 1990s with the introduction of the first prescription opioids. In the years that followed, doctors across the country, unaware or unwilling to recognize the risk of addiction, flooded the market with prescriptions for the drugs.

The annual number of opioid prescriptions issued by healthcare providers.

The administration announced last week that it would award $1.5 billion to states, tribal countries and territories to fund access to addiction prevention, treatment and the overdose reversal drug naloxone. The White House also announced additional financial sanctions would be imposed on entities involved in drug trafficking.

What does an overdose look like?

Overdose data for 2022 is still being collected, but increasing attacks at the border and increasing fatalities suggest the crisis will worsen before it improves.