Discussions Are Good –
Aug. 29, 2019 –
It Has Never Been Just Opioids
The idea that North America is facing an “opioid crisis” does not accurately describe reality. Most drug-related deaths involve drug combinations, with interactions between different drugs greatly increasing risks. So the word “overdose,” which implies too much of a single drug, can be a misnomer.
Almost half of drug-related deaths (48 percent) involved two or moresubstances, according to 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. And in 2016, nearly 80 percent of all synthetic opioid-related deaths involved another drug, often alcohol or benzodiazepines. These figures may understate the prevalence of drug combinations, experts tell Filter, due to small amounts of, say, alcohol, not being recorded in autopsy reports.
