23 ms·

Fentanyl number one cause of death for adults 18-45, recent government data says

25 points by _-david-_ 5y ago

simonswords82 5y ago
And the people that profited from it are still walking free.
johnisgood 5y ago
Fentanyl-related deaths are mostly accidental overdoses. They are the result of the War on Drugs. People buy unregulated and untested shit off the streets and they are laced with fentanyl. They cannot even test it without getting into legal trouble. At the very least we could provide that.
dang 5y ago
Ongoing related thread: Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29769764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29769764 - Jan 2022 (264 comments)
gnabgib 5y ago
"according to data compiled by Families Against Fentanyl" - not a lot of substance to back this up, although Fentanyl is a dangerous drug.
psyc 5y ago
Fentanyl has been around for 60 years. Why did it take off so hard in the 2010s? Did somebody popularize it? Historical accident?
- johnisgood 5y ago
  They lace everything with fentanyl in the US, I just dunno why. Is it actually cheaper?! If so, why? They put this into Xanax bars (alprazolam). Why? I expect fentanyl to be more expensive than alprazolam. It actually is in Europe. How common are accidental fentanyl overdoses in the US vs. Europe?
  - DougN7 5y ago
    The people that do this are already amoral, but you’d think they’d stop simply because killing your customers is bad for business. Hard to understand their motivation.
    - johnisgood 5y ago
      I do not know why they do it. Is it even a thing in Europe? If it is, I have not heard of it, whereas I hear about this in the US every single day.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  Vast amounts of fentanyl have been flooding into the United States from the so-called "Golden Triangle" in Southeast Asia, which has been producing heroin for many decades. Fentanyl is a synthetic drug with a much simpler structure than morphine or heroin. It is also 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. The former heroin producers in that region have noted that a) because it's synthetic you don't need any gigantic and easy-to-spot opium poppy fields and b) being 50 times more powerful makes it far easier to smuggle than an equivalent amount of heroin would be.
nick__m 5y ago
Carfentanyl is probably responsible for a significant fraction of the overdose attributed to fentanyl : https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2018/05/11/first-dea-seizure-carfentanil-new-york-acts-public-service-announcement https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2018/05/11/first-dea-seiz... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/carfentanil-warnings-1.5199818 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/carfentanil-warnings-... https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Gray-Death-drug-mixture-reaches-Indiana-puts-first-responders-at-risk-422004694.html https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Gray-Death-drug-mixture-re... Not that fentanyl is safe but some addicts, like Denise in the article, used to be able to use it without dying, the same is almost impossible to do with carfentanyl.
cosmotic 5y ago
It's irresponsible to report Fentanyl as the number one killer in 18-45 without also reporting COVID is killing more people overall. COVID deniers will latch on to this statistic as evidence that COVID doesn't kill without this caveat.
- verdverm 5y ago
  One might also consider malnutrition and starvation kill many more than Covid worldwide, always and still
- disambiguation 5y ago
  Disagree. Lumping all age demographics together is irresponsible. People under 50 make up 2/3 of the population but only 7% or covid mortality. Good public health policy should address the top threats per demographic. Though I agree with your underlying point, if we can only focus on one problem at a time then we're also doomed.
  - cosmotic 5y ago
    No one is suggesting we stop giving fentanyl deaths attention or lumping all age groups. The suggestion here is to always give the caveat: ~300k COVID deaths compared to ~64k fentanyl deaths overall. I've seen too many posts by COVID-deniers referencing this statistic without the caveat.
    - disambiguation 5y ago
      Those 300k covid deaths are not people in the same age band as fentanyl deaths, probably more like 20k. Your caveat needs a caveat.
    - chrismcb 5y ago
      What caveat? Over the last two years there have been about 40k covid deaths for people under 50. So that is 2 years 40k vs 1 year 64k.
    - _-david-_ 5y ago

25 points by _-david-_ 5y ago

And the people that profited from it are still walking free.

Fentanyl-related deaths are mostly accidental overdoses. They are the result of the War on Drugs. People buy unregulated and untested shit off the streets and they are laced with fentanyl. They cannot even test it without getting into legal trouble. At the very least we could provide that.

dang 5y ago

Ongoing related thread: Indiana life insurance CEO says deaths are up 40% among people ages 18-64 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29769764 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29769764 - Jan 2022 (264 comments)

gnabgib 5y ago

"according to data compiled by Families Against Fentanyl" - not a lot of substance to back this up, although Fentanyl is a dangerous drug.

psyc 5y ago

Fentanyl has been around for 60 years. Why did it take off so hard in the 2010s? Did somebody popularize it? Historical accident?

johnisgood 5y ago
They lace everything with fentanyl in the US, I just dunno why. Is it actually cheaper?! If so, why? They put this into Xanax bars (alprazolam). Why? I expect fentanyl to be more expensive than alprazolam. It actually is in Europe. How common are accidental fentanyl overdoses in the US vs. Europe?
- DougN7 5y ago
  The people that do this are already amoral, but you’d think they’d stop simply because killing your customers is bad for business. Hard to understand their motivation.
  - johnisgood 5y ago
    I do not know why they do it. Is it even a thing in Europe? If it is, I have not heard of it, whereas I hear about this in the US every single day.
Turing_Machine 5y ago
Vast amounts of fentanyl have been flooding into the United States from the so-called "Golden Triangle" in Southeast Asia, which has been producing heroin for many decades. Fentanyl is a synthetic drug with a much simpler structure than morphine or heroin. It is also 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. The former heroin producers in that region have noted that a) because it's synthetic you don't need any gigantic and easy-to-spot opium poppy fields and b) being 50 times more powerful makes it far easier to smuggle than an equivalent amount of heroin would be.

nick__m 5y ago

Carfentanyl is probably responsible for a significant fraction of the overdose attributed to fentanyl : https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2018/05/11/first-dea-seizure-carfentanil-new-york-acts-public-service-announcement https://www.dea.gov/press-releases/2018/05/11/first-dea-seiz... https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/carfentanil-warnings-1.5199818 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/carfentanil-warnings-... https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Gray-Death-drug-mixture-reaches-Indiana-puts-first-responders-at-risk-422004694.html https://www.wndu.com/content/news/Gray-Death-drug-mixture-re... Not that fentanyl is safe but some addicts, like Denise in the article, used to be able to use it without dying, the same is almost impossible to do with carfentanyl.

cosmotic 5y ago

It's irresponsible to report Fentanyl as the number one killer in 18-45 without also reporting COVID is killing more people overall. COVID deniers will latch on to this statistic as evidence that COVID doesn't kill without this caveat.

verdverm 5y ago
One might also consider malnutrition and starvation kill many more than Covid worldwide, always and still
disambiguation 5y ago
Disagree. Lumping all age demographics together is irresponsible. People under 50 make up 2/3 of the population but only 7% or covid mortality. Good public health policy should address the top threats per demographic. Though I agree with your underlying point, if we can only focus on one problem at a time then we're also doomed.
- cosmotic 5y ago
  No one is suggesting we stop giving fentanyl deaths attention or lumping all age groups. The suggestion here is to always give the caveat: ~300k COVID deaths compared to ~64k fentanyl deaths overall. I've seen too many posts by COVID-deniers referencing this statistic without the caveat.
  - disambiguation 5y ago
    Those 300k covid deaths are not people in the same age band as fentanyl deaths, probably more like 20k. Your caveat needs a caveat.
  - chrismcb 5y ago
    What caveat? Over the last two years there have been about 40k covid deaths for people under 50. So that is 2 years 40k vs 1 year 64k.
  - _-david-_ 5y ago