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Tag: fatal overdoses

  • Fentanyl-Related Deaths Skyrocket In California

    Fentanyl-Related Deaths Skyrocket In California

    Overdose deaths related to fentanyl rose more than 1,000% between 2014 and 2018 in the state.

    The recent overdose-related death of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs has brought to light a troubling statistic for the state of California: while new opioid prescriptions and drug-related emergency room visits have dropped in the Golden State since 2014, overdose deaths related to the synthetic opioid fentanyl have risen sharply over the same time period.

    The East Bay Times examined the increase in a feature that showed that overdose deaths related to fentanyl rose more than 1,000% between 2014 and 2018, according to data from the California Department of Public Health.

    Phantom Fentanyl

    The blame for the increase was laid in part on what the Times called “phantom fentanyl”—pills made from fentanyl and cut to resemble prescription drugs such as the prescription painkiller oxycodone, which were also in part responsible for the death of rapper Mac Miller in 2018—as well as changes to the legal system which have reduced the number of offenders entering treatment programs.

    The health department data referenced by the Times found that in 2014, 15 people died from fentanyl overdoses in Los Angeles County. Four years later, the death toll had risen to 202—an increase of 1,247%. Statewide, fentanyl deaths also rose 614% during the four-year period, for a total of 1,649 fatalities.

    The increase of counterfeit pharmaceuticals made with fentanyl was seen as the primary cause of the increase. Counterfeit pills can be made for $1 each, according to the Times, and sold for 20 times that amount on the black market. Both Skaggs and Mac Miller succumbed to overdoses caused by fentanyl and oxycodone in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

    But the Times also cited the opinion of state law enforcement, which suggested that the passage of Proposition 47—which categorized non-violent offenses like drug or property crimes as misdemeanors, which are imposed without jail time—may have had an impact.

    Removing those individuals from the two-pronged diversionary approach to drugs afforded by incarceration—the penalty of imprisonment and the opportunity to attend treatment programs in jail—has led to a “reduction in people attending treatment programs,” according to Jodi Miller, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.

    Narcan Availability And Fentanyl Strips Could Make A Difference

    The increased availability of the opioid-overdose reversal drug Narcan could make a difference in fatality statistics, but Department of Public Health officials also suggested that greater access to fentanyl test strips—which can detect the presence of the opioid in urine and in drugs themselves—could also have an impact. However, access to test strips is currently limited to harm reduction-oriented programs, according to the Times.

    Los Angeles County has also launched a public education program on prescription pain medication abuse in English and Spanish as a means of combating death rates in an area which saw some of the most significant increases—404 overdose deaths, including half in 2018 alone—in overdose fatality rates.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Daniel Baldwin's New Documentary Spotlights Loved Ones Of Overdose Victims

    Daniel Baldwin's New Documentary Spotlights Loved Ones Of Overdose Victims

    The idea for the documentary came to Baldwin after he learned about the overdose death of his friend PJ Raynor.

    An upcoming documentary will focus on an area of the drug epidemic that isn’t often talked about: the experiences of friends and family members who are left behind when someone overdoses. 

    The documentary, called My Promise To PJ is being produced by Daniel Baldwin, the brother of Alec, Stephen and William Baldwin. 

    Losing PJ

    The idea for the documentary came after Baldwin, who is in recovery, learned about the overdose of P.J. Raynor. Baldwin had helped Raynor get sober, but after more than three years in recovery, Raynor relapsed and died on June 28, 2017.

    “I felt robbed,” Baldwin told WECT News about Raynor’s death. “I felt this is not the way the script was written by me. He finally got it, he had three and a half years sober and then I got a phone call that the first time he went back out and used heroin again it was laced with fentanyl and he overdosed.”

    Raynor’s parents, Patrick and Barbara Raynor, will participate in the film, and share how their lives have been changed since their son’s death. 

    “I’m a different person now,” said Patrick Raynor. “Not always a good thing when you’re changed by something like this. Never a good thing actually.” 

    Long-Term Sobriety

    Baldwin hopes that the film project will help other people with substance use disorder and their families.

    He said that it is healing for him to work on the project. “The service portion of my sobriety in my program is imperative for my staying sober,” he said. “So, another reason I’m doing this film is because unlike the one kid I’m going to take to coffee and take to a meeting and try to help him, I might reach five million people by doing this movie, and that’s part of what keeps me sober.”

    Baldwin pointed out that long-term sobriety is a challenge, especially in communities that have been heavily-impacted by the opioid epidemic. 

    “You have such a concentrated problem, when they come back from rehab, they’re thrust with the same people, places, and things that they were around and they don’t have long-term sobriety,” he said. 

    It’s a problem that Baldwin knows firsthand. He did nine stints in rehab before he successfully got sober in 2006. Since then, he has used his celebrity status to work on projects about addiction. 

    “By my taking those actions and being of service, it keeps my disease right in front of me and allows me to give away what was so freely given to me when I was in need,” he told The Fix in 2016. “It’s the cycle of life.”

    Filming of My Promise to PJ recently began, but a release date hasn’t yet been set for the film. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Does Cold Weather Increase Opioid Overdose Rates?

    Does Cold Weather Increase Opioid Overdose Rates?

    Researchers investigated whether cold snaps were responsible for increases of overdose deaths.

    Periods of cold weather with temperatures at or below freezing can increase opioid overdose death rates by as much as 25%, according to a recently-published study.

    The study, published in the journal Epidemiology, looked at information on more than 3,000 overdose deaths in New Jersey and Connecticut between 2014 and 2017. The researchers found that “low average temperature over the 3 to 7 days prior to death were associated with higher odds of fatal opioid overdose.”

    Researchers believe there could be a few different explanations for why a cold snap increases the likelihood of overdose.

    There may be a biological explanation: opioids can affect breathing, and it is harder to breath in cold air, so this might be compounded. In addition, people who have taken opioids find it harder to regulate their body temperature because opioids reduce the point at which people start shivering, a biological mechanism that helps increase temperature when a person is getting too cold.

    In addition, cold temperatures could affect the drug supply chain, making it more likely that people get drugs contaminated with synthetic opioids, researchers speculated. Or, people might be more likely to use drugs alone when it is cold out.

    “It is well known that opioids induce respiratory depression, and that’s what causes a fatal overdose,” lead study author Brandon Marshall told Science Daily. “However, there may be a host of other risk factors that contribute to opioid overdose deaths, which could be avenues for effective interventions.”

    Marshall emphasized that the reasons don’t matter as much as the fact that lifesaving interventions could be emphasized during cold snaps.

    “Regardless of what is causing the correlation between cold weather and fatal overdoses, our findings suggest that agencies and organizations should consider scaling up harm-reduction efforts after a period of cold weather,” he said.

    The research showed that the temperature on the day of death wasn’t indicative of increased risk, but that a stretch of cold days was much more likely to affect overdose rates.

    “Thirty-two degrees on just one day is cold, but to maintain an average of 32 degrees for three or four days means there was a long time where it was quite cold,” said William Goedel, who helped analyze the data.

    However, he noted that is it possible that people are more likely to fatally overdose on cold days, but that is harder to prove with the available data.

    “One possibility is that the same-day temperature is based around the recorded day of death, which in some cases is an estimate, especially when a body isn’t found for a couple of days,” Goedel said. “The lack of a strong correlation with temperature on the day of death could be due to the uncertainty of when people actually died.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Teens Who Share Drugs May Face Conviction, Prison Sentencing

    Teens Who Share Drugs May Face Conviction, Prison Sentencing

    Though laws vary in regard to culpability, 20 states regard drug delivery resulting in death as a crime. 

    A new feature on Psychology Today highlights an alarming possibility for parents and teenagers: Sharing drugs with friends can be considered legal grounds for a charge of dealing that can carry a prison sentence.

    The feature references a New York Times article that details hundreds of cases of fatal overdoses in 36 states; many of these involved deaths that led to charges of homicide against friends and relatives, even though the deaths were considered unintentional.  

    Psychology Today advised a conversation with parents of teenagers to inform them about the possible legal consequences of sharing drugs.

    Though laws vary in regard to culpability, the New York Times feature links to a list from the Drug Policy Alliance of 20 states that regard drug delivery resulting in death as a crime. Other states impose charges of manslaughter, homicide and murder on overdose-related cases.

    Regardless of the final charge, cases involving accidental overdose deaths that resulted in prosecution or arrest doubled between 2015 and 2017; in the state of Minnesota, the number quadrupled over a decade.

    The Psychology Today and New York Times articles both emphasized the fact that distribution of drugs that results in a death can result in criminal charges and imprisonment.

    The Times cited a case of a 21-year-old in Minnesota who allegedly brought a synthetic drug to a party where 11 people overdosed, including a friend who died from cardiac arrest. The individual who brought the drug, and who claimed he was not aware of its illegal status, pled guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to nearly 10 years.

    The Minnesota case also highlights the broad definition of distribution or dealing that is employed by several states. Sharing or giving away drugs with no exchange of money can be considered distribution; even borrowing money from another person to purchase drugs which results in an overdose death can bring a prosecution charge. Though defendants may argue that they did not force the situation in which a fatal overdose occurred, prosecutors take the position that the drugs caused a death, regardless of intent.

    “Some family has lost an innocent life,” said Peter Kilmartin, attorney general of Rhode Island, in the New York Times piece. “That victim no longer has a voice.”

    The Psychology Today feature that connects the two stories advocates for direct communication about sharing drugs with teenagers. “Open a dialogue with your child about drug sharing and the new legal consequences,” wrote the story’s author, Sean Grover, LCSW. Involving family members or representatives from a child’s school is also suggested.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • How Drugs, Alcohol & Suicide Are Affecting The Average Lifespan

    How Drugs, Alcohol & Suicide Are Affecting The Average Lifespan

    A new CDC report has revealed some alarming changes in life expectancy trends.

    A new CDC report reveals that the average life expectancy in the United States is falling for the first time since 1993.

    Drugs, alcohol, and suicide are taking the lives of young Americans at rates so high that the U.S. life expectancy is being pushed down, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has released a new federal report revealing that the U.S. life expectancy has dipped by about 0.3 years between 2014 and 2016.

    This breaks the pattern of steadily-rising life expectancy between 2006 and 2016, which saw growth from 77.8 years to 78.6 years. The causes for this drop in the general population, says the CDC, are rising drug overdose rates, suicide, liver disease, and Alzheimer’s.

    Drug deaths have been spiraling out of control over the past few years, killing 63,600 people in 2016.

    In 2016, liver disease surpassed HIV to take the dubious honor of being the sixth-highest cause of death for U.S. adults aged 25 to 44.

    Suicide has been on an upward trend for all demographics, including an alarming 9% increase in suicides by children from age 1 to 14 during the study period.

    While more men have died of overdose and suicide than women in the past, that gender gap is quickly closing. Drug overdose deaths jumped by about 19% for women aged 15 to 24 from 2014 to 2016. Suicide rates for young women have grown by a whopping 70% between 2010 and 2016.

    Deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have risen by 21%, and the CDC expects this number to grow larger as time goes on.

    However, the report wasn’t all bad news. Among Americans above the age of 65, deaths resulting from heart disease, cancer, and strokes have fallen.

    Drugs, alcohol, and suicide have been working to drive down life expectancy since 1993. While these increases may not seem like a big deal, Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, says we should be aware.

    “For any individual, that’s not a whole lot,” he told NPR. “But when you’re talking about it in terms of a population, you’re talking about a significant number of potential lives that aren’t being lived.”  

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Chinese National Pleads Guilty To Importing Opioids

    Chinese National Pleads Guilty To Importing Opioids

    The businessman would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them out domestically.

    A Chinese businessman living in Massachusetts has pled guilty to charges of importing opioids. 

    Bin Wang, 42, was arrested in July and charged with importing shipments of carfentanil, fentanyl and other opioids. Wang would receive large shipments of opioids from China and mail them domestically, including to buyers in Ohio, according to a press release by the Ohio U.S. Attorney’s office.

    On Tuesday, Wang pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to importing and distributing opioids. He will be sentenced on November 13.

    Opioids, particularly powerful synthetics, are reportedly made in China and shipped into the U.S. using couriers like FedEx and even the U.S. Postal Service.

    “Increasingly, the opioids that are killing our friends and neighbors are being sent here from China,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David Sierleja. “Shutting down this pipeline will help in our efforts to turn the tide on the opioid epidemic. We will focus on prevention, education, and aggressive law enforcement, both here and around the world.”

    This requires a new approach to intercepting drugs.

    “The importation of opioids and other synthetic drugs from China has played a significant role in America’s current drug use epidemic. Over 60,000 people a year die from drug overdoses in this country, and halting all methods of drug trafficking—including by way of the Internet—is a top priority of the DEA,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon. “This investigation makes clear that geographic and technological hurdles will not stop DEA and our partners from bringing to justice those responsible for the illegal distribution of drugs in the U.S.”

    Despite that tough stance, it is reportedly very difficult to catch opioids coming into the country from China. In part, that is because the shipments are small, and the volume of mail coming into the country makes it difficult to pinpoint suspicious packages. In addition, prosecuting Chinese manufacturers can be difficult.

    Officials first started investigating the drugs that led to Wang in 2016, after a series of fatal overdoses in Ohio. They determined that the drugs were bought online through a Chinese website, and that a Chinese man known as “Gordon Jin” was shipping the drugs to Wang in Massachusetts, who then distributed them domestically.

    Undercover agents purchase opioids from Jin, and were able to track the shipments to Wang, who was operating companies from a warehouse in Woburn, Massachusetts.

    “This investigation is a great example of a collaborative effort of federal agencies and a local drug task force working together to identify and track down people and organizations that are responsible for the ever-increasing shipments of very powerful synthetic opiates into Ohio,” said Don Hall, director of the MEDWAY Drug Enforcement Agency.

    View the original article at thefix.com