USA USA USA –
Jan. 4, 2022 – In the year ending in April 2021, fentanyl claimed the lives of 40,010 Americans ages 18-45. That’s more than car accidents (22,442), suicide (21,678), COVID (21,335), and cancer (17,114).
“What is driving these behaviors in the illicit market is clearly just profit, it’s greediness,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Because fentanyl is used as a cheap cut it has managed to find its way into nearly every drug supply in the United States.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says last year, 75% of cocaine overdose deaths were mixed-use with fentanyl, the same goes with 50% of methamphetamine overdose deaths.
“We have public health evidence-based interventions that we can be doing today for healthier and safer communities,” said Raville. “For example, when we talk about prevention, we need to talk about harm reduction and realistic education to teens.”
As Raville said, in a perfect world drugs would not exist, but they do, and that is where she and Dr. Volkow agree solving the overdose issue is different from addressing the drug use issue.
