6 ms·

U.S. overdose deaths plummet, saving thousands of lives

53 points by geox 2y ago

Molitor5901 2y ago
"Why the sudden and hopeful shift? Most experts say it's a mystery While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers." Not one word about marijuana legalization. "States With Legalized Medical Marijuana See Decline in Nonmedical Opioid Use" https://sph.rutgers.edu/news/states-legalized-medical-marijuana-see-decline-nonmedical-opioid-use https://sph.rutgers.edu/news/states-legalized-medical-mariju... "Legalized Marijuana Linked to Decline in Opioid Emergencies" https://www.upmc.com/media/news/071221-drake-cannabisrcl https://www.upmc.com/media/news/071221-drake-cannabisrcl
- robertlagrant 2y ago
  Did you see the graph? The number is at over 100k. In 2019 it was under 70k. It's a relative decline since 2023, not an absolute one.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    The CDC graph shows that in the 12-month period to April 2023 it was 110k, and that reduced to 100k in the 12 months to April 2024. That is absolute - isn't it?
    - robertlagrant 2y ago
      The context of my comment is that the previous commenter was saying it's to do with the legalisation of marijuana.
      - card_zero 2y ago
        Oh, OK. I guess there are different ways to use the word "relative". Certainly a decline when zoomed in can look like part of an increase when zoomed out. But to be clear, this isn't one of those decline-in-the-rate-of-increase deals, which is what "relative" means to me. (Great news everybody! The rate of increase in the increasingly large numbers of deaths is slowing down!)
    - manvillej 2y ago
      no. That is relative to 2023. There isn't going to be an absolute decrease because the chart started at 0 and we can't go below 0. only absolute increases (increases that go over historical highs), relative increases (increases that do not go over historical highs), and relative decreases.
      - card_zero 2y ago
        Yeah, that thought struck me too, looking at the entire graph there can never be an absolute decrease. But then, which timescale is the salient one?
        robertlagrant 2y ago
        In context it would be one that would show that marijuana legalisation was probably the cause.
        card_zero 2y ago
        Indeed, it's probably not due to marijuana legalisation, unless the resulting decline had a four year lag period for some reason, which I won't attempt to argue.
        throwuxiytayq 2y ago
        I’d be more surprised if the effect was immediate. Addiction takes years to develop, and years to recover from. I would also expect marijuana legalization to have more impact on (potential) future drug users than people already addicted to opioids.
- pjc50 2y ago
  > While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers This is kind of a failure of state capacity in itself. The opioid crisis happened "out of view", and remains out of view even as the situation improves. Without more and better data it's difficult to improve. It also doesn't help that the opioid epidemic has overlapped with COVID, stretching CDC capacity.
- onemoresoop 2y ago
  Maybe it's more awareness related to fentanyl dangers? While the numbers didn't completely drop, the decline could be attributed to this. I've watched some terribly sad videos on youtube regarding opioid deaths. In some cases there were kids buying Adderall to study and little did they know that was tainted with fentanyl..
FredPret 2y ago
Looks like they're crediting the drop to the overdose treatment drug Naloxone
potato3732842 2y ago
The cynic in me wonders the extent to which this is a result of people who can get clean (enough to support themselves more than they would otherwise) doing so, and thereby reducing their risk, because the friends/family who tend to at least partly subsidize their lifestyle need to reduce their support as a result of economic conditions. While not all, likely not even a majority, of people most likely to show up in OD stats are receiving that kind of support the share is likely high enough to be readily visible in statistics were the support to change substantially in quantity or quality.
- ToucanLoucan 2y ago
  As someone who's studied addiction pretty closely, withdrawing further of what support an addict has is, IMO, far likelier to push them further into addiction and increase the odds of an overdose. The notion that addicts need to "hit rock bottom" as it were is harmful and counter-productive. Many addictions are a result of some combo of social isolation, use of the drug to self-medicate for mental/physical issues, or good old depression. Sure, some people hit rock bottom and get clean. Others just die. The second group is larger. What most addicts need is some sense of stability in their lives, social/community support, and safe places to use along with clean drugs and paraphernalia to taper themselves off with. However despite being demonstrably the reliable way to get people out of the addiction hole, it offends the sensibilities of the mainstream and is therefore quite politically unpopular.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - potato3732842 2y ago
    Almost all non-functioning addicts in my observation (and casual workplace exposure to statistics) get clean or get dead on a couple year timeline (and yes, many get clean only to get addicted and then non-functioning addicted again). Almost nobody indulges non-functioning addiction for years on end without becoming a statistic. The people who seem to be are people who are getting clean and getting re-hooked or otherwise making some serious effort to fight it. Family and friends' ability to support these people seems to be decreasing and forcing an increased number of addicts to speedrun it. People who would be moving in with a relative and casually trying to stay clean over months before backsliding, using up that support resource, spending months living on the streets and couches before deciding to fight the addiction again to in my limited view be more inclined to go all out fighting the addiction sooner now that the support is scarcer. As I'm sure you know, a subset of people who are further along in the journey in states where public policy permit this and make it easy do sometimes use hospitals as short term shelter/food/care. Some of these people go around many times. I have decent visibility into these people by virtue of sitting 4ft from someone who spends their workday dealing in tracking this stuff for hospital regulatory compliance purposes (in the northeast where the climate is not kind to the homeless FWIW). There are a lot more people showing up to ERs today saying "I have nowhere to go, I'm suicidal, the drugs are a problem, I need to be clean" these days than there were ~2yr (just eyeballing it on that number) ago when it was far more rare for the last part of that sentence to make a showing and it was far more routine for people to basically go through the motions to get discharged, blow off any after care and show up in the system again a few months later. Edit: I use the distinction non-functioning in the first paragraph to separate out the functioning alcoholic and all the people who spent the 00s living a normal life while popping opioids their doctor prescribed them.
meiraleal 2y ago
Why do americans make so much use of opioids? For me it sounds like crack. No sane person tries crack, most people are already in the lowest point in their life when they are presented to the "opportunity". Is it similar with opioids?
- analog31 2y ago
  I think a major contributor is actual pain, from the workplace, perhaps obesity, perhaps poor health in general.
  - ceejayoz 2y ago
    A major contributor was also Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, who got rich off getting people started on prescription opioids.
    - WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
      > A major contributor was also Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, Their 1980s and 1990s actions led to the pill mill event. The feds sharply reversed it before "opioid crisis" became a trending term. Over the last 15+ years, Fentanyl has been the (primary) physical driver. The list of social drivers is fairly unchanged. me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41578349#41579772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41578349#41579772
      - ceejayoz 2y ago
        > Their 1980s and 1990s actions led to the pill mill event. Oxycontin was approved by the FDA in 1995. The FDA dinged them for misleading marketing claims in 2003. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/food-and-drug-administration-overdose-prevention-framework/timeline-selected-fda-activities-and-significant-events-addressing-substance-use-and-overdose https://www.fda.gov/drugs/food-and-drug-administration-overd... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic > Between 1991 and 2011, painkiller prescriptions in the U.S. tripled from 76 million to 219 million per year, and as of 2016 more than 289 million prescriptions were written for opioid drugs per year. I don't doubt that fentanyl kills a lot of people today, but a lot of those currently addicted got started on pills legally prescribed to them.
donatj 2y ago
I wonder how much of that is just... how to put it kindly... basically running out of people prone to overdose in the first place?
- skyyler 2y ago
  New people are born every minute. They grow up fast.
  - card_zero 2y ago
    I wonder vaguely about selection pressure and evolution. But I don't know if being genetically overdose-resistant is even possible.
- simoncion 2y ago
  > I wonder how much of that is just... how to put it kindly... basically running out of people prone to overdose in the first place? Very little. Narcan became approved for OTC sale at the end of March, 2023. As the numbers show, it turns out that widespread access to and timely administration of a drug that prevents people from dying from opioid overdoses prevents them from dying from opioid overdoses. Edit: Do you know anyone who uses opiods? You might consider picking up some Narcan just in case they screw up and OD when you're around. You can buy it at Walgreens [0] and many other commercial pharmacies. [0] <https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/naloxone.jsp https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/naloxone.jsp>
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  >people prone to overdose in the first place Everyone is prone to opioid addiction and overdose. If you got a prescription for Oxycontin and had no trouble weaning yourself off of it, you should consider yourself lucky, NOT special
  - hackeraccount 2y ago
jkestner 2y ago
Narcan nasal spray was approved for over the counter last March. The chart’s peak is one month after.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  Good observation. Can we get sales data anywhere to further correlate? https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/narcan-opioid-overdose-drug-otc-access-varies-us-stores-rcna135324 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/narcan-opioid-ove... > In the fourth quarter of last year, Emergent reported $111 million in Narcan sales, a 22% increase from the year prior. The increase was mainly driven by sales of the over-the-counter version, the drugmaker said. This article indicates there are still challenges about availability in a retail setting, which would lead me to believe that more work put into that would reduce overdose deaths further. I would think a model similar to ubiquitous access of AEDs is what is needed (vending distribution, app to show location availability [similar to the Netherlands for AEDs: https://en.zoetermeer.nl/aeds https://en.zoetermeer.nl/aeds], etc). > Narcan, when given soon after an overdose begins, reverses these effects rapidly: The person will usually wake up within one to three minutes, according to the FDA. Because the effects of Narcan do not last long, it’s essential to also call 911. (this is a system, which appears to be working, but can be improved to lead to improved outcomes at scale) EDIT: Also room for preventative GLP-1 agonist use in folks prone to this addiction: https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-case-for-using https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas...
- manvillej 2y ago
  Bingo, easier access to life saving medication.
- Supermancho 2y ago
  I don't think this has a significant bearing. Ambulances have had narcan equivalent for years. Addicts dont carry and pedestrians don't carry. Family members maybe, but I've never heard about it except in movies...and I know a lot of addicts.
  - sbelskie 2y ago
sbelskie 2y ago
One of the researchers mentioned is also on the team of the Opioid Data Lab (link below). They have links to studies that include Jupyter notebooks, GitHub repos, etc. Thought that might be of interest to this crowd. https://www.opioiddata.org/ https://www.opioiddata.org/ https://github.com/opioiddatalab https://github.com/opioiddatalab
Eumenes 2y ago
i say this as a former addict. wow people are killing themselves with drugs 10% less? wow, much progress. thank goodness for harm reduction experts and non-profits working so hard on the ground to give junkies drugs, needles, and care. history will not look favorably on kicking the can down the road like this. we keep dodging the root cause to prop up a population that will cost the public an astronomical amount of money in healthcare and lifestyle cost. thats not even factoring in turning cities into hellscapes. not only is this anti democratic (literally nobody wants to support junkies) but will lead to the rise of populists. how is it fair for middle class who have to pay tens of thousands, if not more, for healthcare cost every year?
- n4r9 2y ago
  What's the root cause in your view?
  - Eumenes 2y ago
    the inflow of drugs from the southern border and maritime ports. i'm not saying we return to a war on drugs like campaign, but ffs, we need to stop drugs from getting into the country or being created. if the US can shell out billions to NATO, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, then it sure as hell has the resources to at least attempt to curb the inbound of this stuff. also, go lax on the users, but go after dealers. dealing drugs needs to be met with zero tolerance.
    - n4r9 2y ago
      Is the influx of drugs like fentanyl really the "root cause", though? People wouldn't be trying to smuggle it in unless there was already a demand.
    - pjc50 2y ago
      > i'm not saying we return to a war on drugs like campaign > [describes war on drugs] Doing this via law enforcement is going to require a level of intrusiveness that Americans are unlikely to tolerate (or be compatible with the constitution), along with considerable violence.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
im3w1l 2y ago
One curious omission in the article was statistics about drug use. Do less people use drugs or do they still use it in the same numbers without dying?
WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
The broader opioid timeline goes something like this. In the mid 1990s pill mills are overdispensing pain meds. I live in a pill mill area and saw the rise and fall first hand. In the 2000s the feds are cracking down hard; pill mills are shuttered over the next decade. Mid 2010s cheap fentanyl is being shipped to the US and opioid deaths are climbing. News orgs notice; politicians notice. Both blame the former pill-mill problem. Late 2010s politicians pass laws sharply limiting access to pain meds and begin signaling that health care providers can be penalized for whatever the feds interpret as "over prescribing". Chronic pain patients are suddenly cut off from pain relief that had enabled routine living - for years. Faced with a loss of productivity or obtaining pain relief illegally, they choose one of those. I still see this first hand. Patients find that their doctors are strongly resistant to prescribing pain meds when indicated. State laws limiting pain meds to 3 days compound the problem. Post-op and ER patients are increasingly prescribed acetaminophen for significantly painful events. For the past 5 years: News orgs wind-down pill mill citations; ramp up focus on Fentanyl and need for treatment. Politicians attack Fentanyl but are divided about decreasing addiction through treatment - usually along party lines. Politicians and news orgs are unitedly oblivious to the plight of pain patients.
flexie 2y ago
The American numbers are still incredibly high. The EU (with a much higher population), has around 6-7,000 drug related deaths per year: https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report/2024/drug-induced-deaths_en https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report... Drug use is usually seen as a poverty problem, and on this platform we are constantly reminded that the US has GDP figures that dwarf the European.
- WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
  > Drug use is usually seen as a poverty problem, and on this platform we are constantly reminded that the US has GDP figures that dwarf the European. The US is loaded with systems that pressure resources and means upward. I spent the 2010s in hunger-level poverty, with minor children. My kids were a few of the millions, who got to experience getting their only-regular-meals in schools.

53 points by geox 2y ago

"Why the sudden and hopeful shift? Most experts say it's a mystery While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers." Not one word about marijuana legalization. "States With Legalized Medical Marijuana See Decline in Nonmedical Opioid Use" https://sph.rutgers.edu/news/states-legalized-medical-marijuana-see-decline-nonmedical-opioid-use https://sph.rutgers.edu/news/states-legalized-medical-mariju... "Legalized Marijuana Linked to Decline in Opioid Emergencies" https://www.upmc.com/media/news/071221-drake-cannabisrcl https://www.upmc.com/media/news/071221-drake-cannabisrcl

robertlagrant 2y ago
Did you see the graph? The number is at over 100k. In 2019 it was under 70k. It's a relative decline since 2023, not an absolute one.
- card_zero 2y ago
  The CDC graph shows that in the 12-month period to April 2023 it was 110k, and that reduced to 100k in the 12 months to April 2024. That is absolute - isn't it?
  - robertlagrant 2y ago
    The context of my comment is that the previous commenter was saying it's to do with the legalisation of marijuana.
    - card_zero 2y ago
      Oh, OK. I guess there are different ways to use the word "relative". Certainly a decline when zoomed in can look like part of an increase when zoomed out. But to be clear, this isn't one of those decline-in-the-rate-of-increase deals, which is what "relative" means to me. (Great news everybody! The rate of increase in the increasingly large numbers of deaths is slowing down!)
  - manvillej 2y ago
    no. That is relative to 2023. There isn't going to be an absolute decrease because the chart started at 0 and we can't go below 0. only absolute increases (increases that go over historical highs), relative increases (increases that do not go over historical highs), and relative decreases.
    - card_zero 2y ago
      Yeah, that thought struck me too, looking at the entire graph there can never be an absolute decrease. But then, which timescale is the salient one?
      - robertlagrant 2y ago
        In context it would be one that would show that marijuana legalisation was probably the cause.
        card_zero 2y ago
        Indeed, it's probably not due to marijuana legalisation, unless the resulting decline had a four year lag period for some reason, which I won't attempt to argue.
        throwuxiytayq 2y ago
        I’d be more surprised if the effect was immediate. Addiction takes years to develop, and years to recover from. I would also expect marijuana legalization to have more impact on (potential) future drug users than people already addicted to opioids.
pjc50 2y ago
> While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers This is kind of a failure of state capacity in itself. The opioid crisis happened "out of view", and remains out of view even as the situation improves. Without more and better data it's difficult to improve. It also doesn't help that the opioid epidemic has overlapped with COVID, stretching CDC capacity.
onemoresoop 2y ago
Maybe it's more awareness related to fentanyl dangers? While the numbers didn't completely drop, the decline could be attributed to this. I've watched some terribly sad videos on youtube regarding opioid deaths. In some cases there were kids buying Adderall to study and little did they know that was tainted with fentanyl..

FredPret 2y ago

Looks like they're crediting the drop to the overdose treatment drug Naloxone

potato3732842 2y ago

The cynic in me wonders the extent to which this is a result of people who can get clean (enough to support themselves more than they would otherwise) doing so, and thereby reducing their risk, because the friends/family who tend to at least partly subsidize their lifestyle need to reduce their support as a result of economic conditions. While not all, likely not even a majority, of people most likely to show up in OD stats are receiving that kind of support the share is likely high enough to be readily visible in statistics were the support to change substantially in quantity or quality.

ToucanLoucan 2y ago
As someone who's studied addiction pretty closely, withdrawing further of what support an addict has is, IMO, far likelier to push them further into addiction and increase the odds of an overdose. The notion that addicts need to "hit rock bottom" as it were is harmful and counter-productive. Many addictions are a result of some combo of social isolation, use of the drug to self-medicate for mental/physical issues, or good old depression. Sure, some people hit rock bottom and get clean. Others just die. The second group is larger. What most addicts need is some sense of stability in their lives, social/community support, and safe places to use along with clean drugs and paraphernalia to taper themselves off with. However despite being demonstrably the reliable way to get people out of the addiction hole, it offends the sensibilities of the mainstream and is therefore quite politically unpopular.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- potato3732842 2y ago
  Almost all non-functioning addicts in my observation (and casual workplace exposure to statistics) get clean or get dead on a couple year timeline (and yes, many get clean only to get addicted and then non-functioning addicted again). Almost nobody indulges non-functioning addiction for years on end without becoming a statistic. The people who seem to be are people who are getting clean and getting re-hooked or otherwise making some serious effort to fight it. Family and friends' ability to support these people seems to be decreasing and forcing an increased number of addicts to speedrun it. People who would be moving in with a relative and casually trying to stay clean over months before backsliding, using up that support resource, spending months living on the streets and couches before deciding to fight the addiction again to in my limited view be more inclined to go all out fighting the addiction sooner now that the support is scarcer. As I'm sure you know, a subset of people who are further along in the journey in states where public policy permit this and make it easy do sometimes use hospitals as short term shelter/food/care. Some of these people go around many times. I have decent visibility into these people by virtue of sitting 4ft from someone who spends their workday dealing in tracking this stuff for hospital regulatory compliance purposes (in the northeast where the climate is not kind to the homeless FWIW). There are a lot more people showing up to ERs today saying "I have nowhere to go, I'm suicidal, the drugs are a problem, I need to be clean" these days than there were ~2yr (just eyeballing it on that number) ago when it was far more rare for the last part of that sentence to make a showing and it was far more routine for people to basically go through the motions to get discharged, blow off any after care and show up in the system again a few months later. Edit: I use the distinction non-functioning in the first paragraph to separate out the functioning alcoholic and all the people who spent the 00s living a normal life while popping opioids their doctor prescribed them.

meiraleal 2y ago

Why do americans make so much use of opioids? For me it sounds like crack. No sane person tries crack, most people are already in the lowest point in their life when they are presented to the "opportunity". Is it similar with opioids?

analog31 2y ago
I think a major contributor is actual pain, from the workplace, perhaps obesity, perhaps poor health in general.
- ceejayoz 2y ago
  A major contributor was also Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, who got rich off getting people started on prescription opioids.
  - WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
    > A major contributor was also Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family, Their 1980s and 1990s actions led to the pill mill event. The feds sharply reversed it before "opioid crisis" became a trending term. Over the last 15+ years, Fentanyl has been the (primary) physical driver. The list of social drivers is fairly unchanged. me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41578349#41579772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41578349#41579772
    - ceejayoz 2y ago
      > Their 1980s and 1990s actions led to the pill mill event. Oxycontin was approved by the FDA in 1995. The FDA dinged them for misleading marketing claims in 2003. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/food-and-drug-administration-overdose-prevention-framework/timeline-selected-fda-activities-and-significant-events-addressing-substance-use-and-overdose https://www.fda.gov/drugs/food-and-drug-administration-overd... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opioid_epidemic > Between 1991 and 2011, painkiller prescriptions in the U.S. tripled from 76 million to 219 million per year, and as of 2016 more than 289 million prescriptions were written for opioid drugs per year. I don't doubt that fentanyl kills a lot of people today, but a lot of those currently addicted got started on pills legally prescribed to them.

donatj 2y ago

I wonder how much of that is just... how to put it kindly... basically running out of people prone to overdose in the first place?

skyyler 2y ago
New people are born every minute. They grow up fast.
- card_zero 2y ago
  I wonder vaguely about selection pressure and evolution. But I don't know if being genetically overdose-resistant is even possible.
simoncion 2y ago
> I wonder how much of that is just... how to put it kindly... basically running out of people prone to overdose in the first place? Very little. Narcan became approved for OTC sale at the end of March, 2023. As the numbers show, it turns out that widespread access to and timely administration of a drug that prevents people from dying from opioid overdoses prevents them from dying from opioid overdoses. Edit: Do you know anyone who uses opiods? You might consider picking up some Narcan just in case they screw up and OD when you're around. You can buy it at Walgreens [0] and many other commercial pharmacies. [0] <https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/naloxone.jsp https://www.walgreens.com/topic/pharmacy/naloxone.jsp>
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
mrguyorama 2y ago
>people prone to overdose in the first place Everyone is prone to opioid addiction and overdose. If you got a prescription for Oxycontin and had no trouble weaning yourself off of it, you should consider yourself lucky, NOT special
- hackeraccount 2y ago

jkestner 2y ago

Narcan nasal spray was approved for over the counter last March. The chart’s peak is one month after.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Good observation. Can we get sales data anywhere to further correlate? https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/narcan-opioid-overdose-drug-otc-access-varies-us-stores-rcna135324 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/narcan-opioid-ove... > In the fourth quarter of last year, Emergent reported $111 million in Narcan sales, a 22% increase from the year prior. The increase was mainly driven by sales of the over-the-counter version, the drugmaker said. This article indicates there are still challenges about availability in a retail setting, which would lead me to believe that more work put into that would reduce overdose deaths further. I would think a model similar to ubiquitous access of AEDs is what is needed (vending distribution, app to show location availability [similar to the Netherlands for AEDs: https://en.zoetermeer.nl/aeds https://en.zoetermeer.nl/aeds], etc). > Narcan, when given soon after an overdose begins, reverses these effects rapidly: The person will usually wake up within one to three minutes, according to the FDA. Because the effects of Narcan do not last long, it’s essential to also call 911. (this is a system, which appears to be working, but can be improved to lead to improved outcomes at scale) EDIT: Also room for preventative GLP-1 agonist use in folks prone to this addiction: https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-case-for-using https://recursiveadaptation.com/p/the-growing-scientific-cas...
manvillej 2y ago
Bingo, easier access to life saving medication.
Supermancho 2y ago
I don't think this has a significant bearing. Ambulances have had narcan equivalent for years. Addicts dont carry and pedestrians don't carry. Family members maybe, but I've never heard about it except in movies...and I know a lot of addicts.
- sbelskie 2y ago

sbelskie 2y ago

One of the researchers mentioned is also on the team of the Opioid Data Lab (link below). They have links to studies that include Jupyter notebooks, GitHub repos, etc. Thought that might be of interest to this crowd. https://www.opioiddata.org/ https://www.opioiddata.org/ https://github.com/opioiddatalab https://github.com/opioiddatalab

Eumenes 2y ago

i say this as a former addict. wow people are killing themselves with drugs 10% less? wow, much progress. thank goodness for harm reduction experts and non-profits working so hard on the ground to give junkies drugs, needles, and care. history will not look favorably on kicking the can down the road like this. we keep dodging the root cause to prop up a population that will cost the public an astronomical amount of money in healthcare and lifestyle cost. thats not even factoring in turning cities into hellscapes. not only is this anti democratic (literally nobody wants to support junkies) but will lead to the rise of populists. how is it fair for middle class who have to pay tens of thousands, if not more, for healthcare cost every year?

n4r9 2y ago
What's the root cause in your view?
- Eumenes 2y ago
  the inflow of drugs from the southern border and maritime ports. i'm not saying we return to a war on drugs like campaign, but ffs, we need to stop drugs from getting into the country or being created. if the US can shell out billions to NATO, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, then it sure as hell has the resources to at least attempt to curb the inbound of this stuff. also, go lax on the users, but go after dealers. dealing drugs needs to be met with zero tolerance.
  - n4r9 2y ago
    Is the influx of drugs like fentanyl really the "root cause", though? People wouldn't be trying to smuggle it in unless there was already a demand.
  - pjc50 2y ago
    > i'm not saying we return to a war on drugs like campaign > [describes war on drugs] Doing this via law enforcement is going to require a level of intrusiveness that Americans are unlikely to tolerate (or be compatible with the constitution), along with considerable violence.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

im3w1l 2y ago

One curious omission in the article was statistics about drug use. Do less people use drugs or do they still use it in the same numbers without dying?

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago

The broader opioid timeline goes something like this. In the mid 1990s pill mills are overdispensing pain meds. I live in a pill mill area and saw the rise and fall first hand. In the 2000s the feds are cracking down hard; pill mills are shuttered over the next decade. Mid 2010s cheap fentanyl is being shipped to the US and opioid deaths are climbing. News orgs notice; politicians notice. Both blame the former pill-mill problem. Late 2010s politicians pass laws sharply limiting access to pain meds and begin signaling that health care providers can be penalized for whatever the feds interpret as "over prescribing". Chronic pain patients are suddenly cut off from pain relief that had enabled routine living - for years. Faced with a loss of productivity or obtaining pain relief illegally, they choose one of those. I still see this first hand. Patients find that their doctors are strongly resistant to prescribing pain meds when indicated. State laws limiting pain meds to 3 days compound the problem. Post-op and ER patients are increasingly prescribed acetaminophen for significantly painful events. For the past 5 years: News orgs wind-down pill mill citations; ramp up focus on Fentanyl and need for treatment. Politicians attack Fentanyl but are divided about decreasing addiction through treatment - usually along party lines. Politicians and news orgs are unitedly oblivious to the plight of pain patients.

flexie 2y ago

The American numbers are still incredibly high. The EU (with a much higher population), has around 6-7,000 drug related deaths per year: https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report/2024/drug-induced-deaths_en https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/european-drug-report... Drug use is usually seen as a poverty problem, and on this platform we are constantly reminded that the US has GDP figures that dwarf the European.

WarOnPrivacy 2y ago
> Drug use is usually seen as a poverty problem, and on this platform we are constantly reminded that the US has GDP figures that dwarf the European. The US is loaded with systems that pressure resources and means upward. I spent the 2010s in hunger-level poverty, with minor children. My kids were a few of the millions, who got to experience getting their only-regular-meals in schools.