Deaths from drug overdoses see largest increase in US history
By
Genevieve Leigh
7 June 2017
Deaths from drug overdoses jumped by the largest margin ever recorded in US history in 2016, according to preliminary data compiled by the New York Times. While the precise number will not be available until December due to the months it takes to certify an overdose death, the Times estimates that in 2016 more than 59,000 people died from drug overdoses, a 19 percent increase from 2015.
The scope of this public health crisis is immense. Drug overdoses now far surpass both the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the US epidemic in the late ’80s and early ’90s and the number killed in the country’s peak year of gun violence, 1993. It is now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50.
The primary drugs responsible for deaths in recent years, accounting for more than half, are opioids. More Americans have died from opiate overdoses in the last two years than in the entire Vietnam War. Opiates include illegal drugs like heroin and drugs that are often legally prescribed for pain, such as hydrocodone and oxycodone (known by the brand names Vicodin and OxyContin, respectively).
Fentanyl, a synthetic pain killer, is the deadliest opioid and the drug that many blame for the rising death toll. Since 2014, fentanyl and its cousin, carfentanil, have proliferated dramatically. These drugs are extremely lethal. Less than half a teaspoon of pure fentanyl is enough to kill 10 people. Carfentanil, which is used as an elephant tranquilizer, is 5,000 times stronger than heroin. For a human, an amount of carfentanil equal to a few grains of salt can be a lethal dose.
Opioids, like many other highly addictive drugs, often sweep through entire towns and regions….