Answer Addiction

Tag: accidental overdose

  • Mac Miller’s Official Cause Of Death Revealed

    Mac Miller’s Official Cause Of Death Revealed

    The 28-year-old rapper passed away in early August.

    A coroner has confirmed Mac Miller’s cause of death. The 26-year-old rapper and music producer (born Malcolm McCormick) died at home in Studio City, California on Sept. 7. Given his history of substance use, early reports pointed to drugs.

    On Monday (Nov. 7), the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner confirmed that McCormick had died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol due to mixed drug toxicity.

    The rapper, who had a tour planned for October following the Aug. 3rd release of his album Swimming, was discovered by his personal assistant in his bedroom. McCormick “struggles with sobriety and when he ‘slips’ he consumes them in excess,” his assistant said, adding that he’d had “several recent ‘slips’” including one three days prior to his death.

    In a 2015 interview with Billboard, the rapper said he was in a good place. “I’m not doing as many drugs. It just eats at your mind, doing drugs every single day, every second. It’s rough on your body,” he said.

    Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid painkiller said to be 50 times stronger than heroin, has also been cited in the deaths of Prince (April 2016) and Tom Petty (October 2017). According to the National Center on Health Statistics, fentanyl was involved in 60% of opioid-related deaths in 2017, an 11% increase from five years prior.

    While fentanyl was created for cancer pain, it is now fueling rising rates of drug overdose deaths. This has prompted the need for a stronger opioid overdose “antidote” to match the strength of increasingly potent fentanyl analogs.

    And this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new, more powerful opioid painkiller called Dsuvia. This new drug is said to be 10 times stronger than fentanyl and 1,000 times stronger than morphine.

    While Dsuvia is intended for restricted use only in health care settings—the FDA promised to place “very tight restrictions” on the drug—critics worry that it will only worsen the opioid crisis.

    “We have worked very diligently over the last three or four years to try to improve the public health, to reduce the number of potent opioids on the street,” said Dr. Raeford Brown, who chairs the FDA advisory committee that voted to approve Dsuvia, despite his opposition. “I don’t think this is going to help us in any way.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Demi Lovato’s Alleged Dealer Claims She Knew Pills Were Risky

    Demi Lovato’s Alleged Dealer Claims She Knew Pills Were Risky

    Friends of Lovato’s said they became concerned when they learned that the singer had begun spending time with Brandon Johnson in April.

    The man who allegedly provided singer Demi Lovato with the pills that she overdosed on in July said that he warned the singer that the pills were “aftermarket” and that she knew the risks with taking them. 

    Brandon Johnson told TMZ that Lovato texted him at 4 a.m. on the day that she overdosed, asking him to come over. Johnson said that he brought pills over and warned Lovato that they were not pharmaceuticals, so they were likely to be stronger.

    TMZ has previously reported that Lovato’s overdose was likely caused by OxyContin pills laced with fentanyl and that Johnson got the pills from Mexico. 

    Johnson insinuated to TMZ that they had done drugs together in the past and that they had a sexual relationship.

    After freebasing the pills together, Johnson told TMZ that he and Lovato watched true crime TV. When he left around 7 or 8 a.m. Lovato was asleep but not in distress, he said. 

    However, when Lovato’s assistant arrived around 11:30 a.m. the singer was in respiratory distress. Paramedics responded and administered Narcan to the pop star who went on to spend two weeks in the hospital before going to rehab. 

    Johnson said that Lovato’s overdose had made him realize how dangerous the pills can be. He added that the incident was “a wake up call for [Lovato].”

    Friends of Lovato’s have told TMZ that Johnson is “bad news” and that they were worried when they learned that the singer had begun hanging around with him in April.

    Just a month before the two connected, Johnson was reportedly arrested with $10,000, a loaded semi-automatic handgun and drugs. However, it seems to have been common knowledge with the singer’s circle that Johnson was dealing Lovato pills. 

    After her overdose, Lovato took to Instagram to discuss her overdose. 

    “I have always been transparent about my journey with addiction,” she wrote. “What I’ve learned is that this illness is not something that disappears or fades with time. It is something I must continue to overcome and have not done yet.”  

    She thanked the hospital that cared for her, and her friends and family. 

    “I now need time to heal and focus on my sobriety and road to recovery. The love you have all shown me will never be forgotten and I look forward to the day where I can say I came out on the other side. I will keep fighting.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioids To Blame For 1 in 5 Young Adult Deaths

    Opioids To Blame For 1 in 5 Young Adult Deaths

    Opioid-related deaths were responsible for 1.7 million lost years of life in 2016, according to a new study.

    In 2016, opioids were involved in 20% of deaths of young Americans ages 24 to 35, according to a new study. 

    The findings, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER Multiple Cause of Death Online Database, which shows the cause of death, age and sex of people who pass away. Researchers looked at the years between 2001 and 2016. 

    During that time period, deaths that were attributable to opioids increased 292%. In 2016, opioid-related deaths were responsible for 1.7 million lost years of life, according to analysis by the researchers. 

    Despite the fact that there has been a lot of attention given to the effects of opioids on middle-aged Americans, the impact was most profound for younger people. In addition to the high death rates for people in their 20s and 30s, opioids caused 12.4% of deaths of youth aged 15 to 24. 

    “Premature death from opioid-related causes imposes an enormous public health burden across the United States,” researchers wrote. “The recent increase in deaths attributable to opioids among those aged 15 to 34 years highlights a need for targeted programs and policies that focus on improved addiction care and harm reduction measures in this high-risk population.”

    The opioid-related death rate for people aged 25-34 nearly quadrupled between 2001 and 2016. 

    “I think that the fact that one out of every five deaths among young adults is from an opioid, if not shocking, should at least create pause for people to realize how huge of an impact this early loss of life is having,” Tara Gomes, an epidemiologist and researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, who led the study, told Tonic. 

    Overall, researchers found that opioids were responsible for 1.5% of all deaths in the United States, or about 1 in 65. That means that opioids resulted in more lost years of life in 2016 than high blood pressure, HIV/AIDs and pneumonia. In 2001, just 1 in 255 deaths were attributable to opioids. 

    Men were more likely than woman to die from an opioid overdose, researchers found. In fact, men made up 67.5% of all opioid-related deaths in 2016. 

    While young people had the highest percentage of opioid-related deaths, the sharpest percentage increase was among older Americans. People over 55 made up 18.4% of opioid deaths in 2016. Between 2001 and 2016 the opioid-related death rate for people age 55 to 64 increased 754%; for people age 65 and older it increased 635%. 

    View the original article at thefix.com