Forty states have seen drug overdoses decline in the past year, as the epidemic that has gripped the U.S. for decades appears to have loosened its grip.
Nationally, the number of overdose deaths in the year ending in April 2024 fell by about 10 percent compared to the period a year earlier, from more than 112,000 to about 101,000.
North Carolina and Nebraska led the way, with declines of 23 percent and 30 percent, respectively. Alaska bucked this trend and overdoses increased by 42 percent. The reasoning is unclear, but may be due to remote areas having less access to treatment.
The national decline is This is believed to be related to increased access to addiction-busting medications such as buprenorphine and Narcan and reports of the public health dangers of fentanyl.
Still others have advanced a more morbid theory: that the fentanyl crisis has been so catastrophic that there are simply no more people left to kill.
Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the Washington Post: “This did not happen 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.
The enforced isolation has also likely exacerbated people’s cravings, combined with mental health issues.
Pre-pandemic, in 2019, approximately 72,000 people died of overdoses in the US
In 2020, that number shot up to about 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 decline is the most recent since a slight decline in early spring 2022.
Behind Nebraska and North Carolina, which saw the steepest declines in overdose deaths, were states ravaged by opioids. Vermont came in third with a decline of 19.4 percent.
After Vermont came Ohio, with a decline of 19.3 percent, followed by Pennsylvania with a decline of 18.6 percent and then Indiana, with a decline of 18 percent.
The states in the West did not fare so 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 an increase of 13.8 percent, followed by Utah with 8.1 percent.
More people are aware — and afraid — of the dangers of fentanyl than ever, according to Austin Wynn, who runs Never Alone Recovery, a free resource for people dealing with addiction to find rehab and intervention help.
Public health messages, whether from government officials, advocacy groups, or the media, appear to be having an impact.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I think fear has been a driving force in seeing some people take different measures. I’ll just tell you what I tell parents: You’re at least 10 times more likely to die from any illegal street drug now, I would say, than they were a few years ago.”
Mr Wynn added: ‘You get a lot of sensationalism in the news, which I don’t always agree with.
“But this is one thing and as ironic as it is, it’s not sensational enough in my opinion.
“You hear stories now like in California, there’s a lot of things maybe two, three years ago, where kids were buying weed, and it was laced with fentanyl. I know of cases in the Chicagoland area involving cocaine.”
Doctors are also increasingly prescribing medications, such as buprenorphine and suboxone, that reduce opioid cravings by only partially activating the brain’s opioid receptors, but not as strongly as heroin or fentanyl would.
By doing this, the user still feels some pain relief and euphoria, but at a much lower level, reducing the need for more.
However, access to these types of medicines is scattered and their uptake is still too low considering how many people would benefit from them.
Yet the prescriptions are increasing. Buprenorphine prescriptions between 2016 and 2021 increased by 36 percentto nearly 13.9 million, while the number of physicians prescribing buprenorphine increased significantly by 86 percent, to approximately 59,000.
Downtown Philadelphia has long been a magnet for drug users looking for their next high, but the extent of the problems caused by xylazine is shocking, even to locals who have grown accustomed to such harrowing scenes.
Buprenorphine has a ‘ceiling effect’, meaning that once a specific dose is reached, taking more will not enhance its effects.
As a result, someone who uses a more powerful opioid while taking buprenorphine will not experience the usual high.
In addition, because buprenorphine partially activates opioid receptors, it helps prevent withdrawal symptoms, making it easier for people to stop using more powerful opioids.
Healthcare professionals have traditionally been reluctant to use medications to treat addiction, due to a general lack of resources and 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 drug Narcan has already saved about 27,000 lives, according to the US newspaper. National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Narcan, also known as naloxone, is an opioid antagonist. It is used by inserting the mouthpiece of the drug into the nose and spraying it when a person 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 available in vending machines, nightclubs, bars, and even schools.
When inhaled, the medicine is absorbed through the mucous membranes in the nose, quickly enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain.
Once there, the drug competes with opioids and attaches to receptors in the brain. It attaches to receptors in the brain and replaces the opioid.
This blunts the effects of opiates on the brain, preventing the progression of an overdose.
The CDC chart shows a 10 percent decline in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April 2024, with approximately 101,000 people succumbing to an overdose.
Public health experts say a combination of messaging, increased awareness and greater access to recovery resources are driving this downward trend.
Another factor suggested by Dr. Caleb Banta-Green, an addiction expert at the University of Washington, is the possibility that fentanyl has exceeded its peak victim count.
He told local news station KUOW: ‘There are only so many people who take a drug, and if it is that deadly, it will eventually – in a truly horrific way – start to extinguish itself like a forest. firework.
“So the fuel has literally burned out. The terrible thing in this case is that the fuel is people.’
Mr. Wynn, for his part, found this theory too simplistic.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘Ultimately, less fentanyl in the world ideally means fewer deaths. But could the argument be made that more people would then be willing to try drugs because there would be fewer deaths? So it’s a bit like Schrödinger’s cat situation.
“And I think it can be a dangerous question because even if it’s true, does it matter? Because what we don’t want is people saying: it’s going to happen anyway. Let’s just wait and see.’