Synthetics now killing more people than prescription opioids, report says
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have overtaken prescription opioids as the No. 1 killer in the opioid epidemic, according to a new report.
The report, published Tuesday in the journal JAMA [DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.2844] [DX], calculated the number and percentage of synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths in the United States between 2010 and 2016 using death certificates from the National Vital Statistics System. The researchers found that about 46% of the 42,249 opioid-related overdose deaths in 2016 involved synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, while 40% involved prescription drugs.
That's more than a three-fold increase in the presence of synthetic opioids from 2010, when synthetic drugs were involved in approximately 14% of opioid-overdose deaths.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:46AM (2 children)
Loss of hope as a reason for a drug epidemic just sounds awful.
I knew things were tough in parts of the US, but I didn't think it was that bad.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @04:16AM
Everything's been characterized bad by the media since Trump was elected.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:32AM
You can blame it on Obama. He gave us hope, then took a shit in our hands and called it change. He also kept pumping afghan heroin into the US, after Bush sent so many young people over there to get fucked up physically and mentally.