Drug Overdoses Now The Leading Killer Of American Adults Under 50
by Tyler Durden
Jun 8, 2017 1:15 AM
The opioid crisis that is ravaging urban and suburban communities across the US claimed an unprecedented 59,000 lives last year, according to preliminary data gathered by the New York Times. If accurate, that’s equivalent to a roughly 19% increase over the approximately 52,000 overdose deaths recorded in 2015, the NYT reported last year.
Overdoses, made increasingly common by the introduction of fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids into the heroin supply, are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. And all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017. One coroner in Western Pennsylvania told a local newspaper that his office is literally running out of room to store the bodies, and that it was recently forced to buy a larger freezer.
The initial data points to large increases in these types of deaths in states along the East Coast, particularly Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Maine. In Ohio, which filed a lawsuit last week accusing five drug companies of abetting the opioid epidemic, the Times estimated that overdose deaths increased by more than 25 percent in 2016.
Overdoses, made increasingly common by the introduction of fentanyl and other powerful synthetic opioids into the heroin supply, are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. And all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017. One coroner in Western Pennsylvania told a local newspaper that his office is literally running out of room to store the bodies, and that it was recently forced to buy a larger freezer.
The initial data points to large increases in these types of deaths in states along the East Coast, particularly Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Maine. In Ohio, which filed a lawsuit last week accusing five drug companies of abetting the opioid epidemic, the Times estimated that overdose deaths increased by more than 25 percent in 2016.
In some Ohio counties, deaths from heroin have virtually disappeared. Instead, the primary culprit is fentanyl or one of its many analogues. In Montgomery County, home to Dayton, of
the 100 drug overdose deaths recorded in January and February, only
three people tested positive for heroin; 97 tested positive for fentanyl
or another analogue.
In
some states in the western half of the US, data suggest deaths may have
leveled off for the time being - or even begun to decline. Experts
believe that the heroin supply west of the Mississippi River,
traditionally dominated by a variant of the drug known as black tar
which is smuggled over the border from Mexico, isn't as easily
adulterated with lethal analogues as the powder that's common on the
East Coast.
First responders are finding that, with fentanyl, carfentanil and the other analogues, overdoses can be so severe that multiple shots of naloxone - the anti-overdose medication that often goes by the brand name Narcan - are needed to revive people. One EMT in Warren County, Ohio told the Times that sometimes as many as 14 doses of Narcan are needed to revive a patient.
While the process in each state varies slightly, death certificates are usually first filled out by a coroner, medical examiner or attending physician. These death certificates are then collected by state health departments and sent to the N.C.H.S., which assigns what’s called an ICD-10 code to each death. This code specifies the underlying cause of death, and it’s what determines whether a death is classified as a drug overdose, the NYT reported.
We can say with confidence that drug deaths rose a great deal in 2016, but it is hard to say precisely how many died or in which places drug deaths rose most steeply. Because of the delay associated with toxicology reports and inconsistencies in the reported data, our estimate could vary from the true number by several thousand.
First responders are finding that, with fentanyl, carfentanil and the other analogues, overdoses can be so severe that multiple shots of naloxone - the anti-overdose medication that often goes by the brand name Narcan - are needed to revive people. One EMT in Warren County, Ohio told the Times that sometimes as many as 14 doses of Narcan are needed to revive a patient.
But, as Robert Anderson, chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC explains, toxicology results, which are necessary to assign a cause of death, can take three to six months or longer.“It’s like a squirt gun in a house fire,” the EMT said.
“It’s frustrating, because we really do want to track this stuff,” he said.
While the process in each state varies slightly, death certificates are usually first filled out by a coroner, medical examiner or attending physician. These death certificates are then collected by state health departments and sent to the N.C.H.S., which assigns what’s called an ICD-10 code to each death. This code specifies the underlying cause of death, and it’s what determines whether a death is classified as a drug overdose, the NYT reported.
We can say with confidence that drug deaths rose a great deal in 2016, but it is hard to say precisely how many died or in which places drug deaths rose most steeply. Because of the delay associated with toxicology reports and inconsistencies in the reported data, our estimate could vary from the true number by several thousand.
It's all about the money for Corporations like The United States Inc. The Corporation is also along with the International Bankers the money behind the terrorists that we spend trillions of tax payer money on.
ReplyDeleteLondon’s tabloids have gone into high gear with vivid descriptions of the attacks and the tragic loss of life. Seven killed and 48 wounded.
“ISIS has claimed responsibility for the depraved attack in London Bridge as chilling video shows three jihadis calmly strolling past a pub while in the midst of the van and knife rampage that killed seven and critically injured 21.” ( The Sun, June 5, 2017)
ISIS has claimed responsibility, Is there a pattern?
Without exception, Al Qaeda or ISIS were allegedly behind the Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Manchester and London Bridge terror attacks, which served to spearhead a wave of Islamophobia across Western Europe, while also providing a pretext for the introduction of drastic police state measures:
“The twisted killers are seen calmly walking through Borough Market moments before they launched a stabbing attack on pubgoers while shouting “this is for Allah”, having already driven a van into crowds.” The Sun, June 5, 2017)
The statement of Prime Minister May (three days before the UK elections) points in the direction of an organized hate campaign against Muslims:
[The Manchester and London attacks] …are bound together by the single, evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division, and promotes sectarianism. It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth.
… It will only be defeated when we turn people’s minds away from this violence – and make them understand that our values – pluralistic, British values – are superior to anything offered by the preachers and supporters of hate. (emphasis added),
“Perversion of the Truth”? Lies, fabrications, omissions. What the British media in chorus fails to mention is that both ISIS and Al Qaeda are creations of US intelligence, recruited, trained and financed by the US and its allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Israel and Jordan.
The Islamic State (ISIS) was originally an Al Qaeda affiliated entity created by US intelligence with the support of Britain’s MI6, Israel’s Mossad, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Saudi Arabia’s General Intelligence Presidency (GIP), Ri’āsat Al-Istikhbārāt Al-’Āmah ( رئاسة الاستخبارات العامة). continued
This is horrible. Regardless of how you feel about illegal drugs people should not be paying with their lives.
ReplyDeleteWe have an epidemic in this country and its all based around opioid use. Our glorious Drug Enforcement Agency in their infinitesimal understanding of addiction/dependence created laws that literally drive people away from DR's and to the local dealer.
Until we require Dr's to understand addiction and remove the DEA from any and all medical treatment thoughts this will continue.
For years Dr's have been treating people with Chronic pain with medication designed for Acute pain relief. If you've ever been given vicodin, percocets you know that you take them every so many hours. You take your pill and 45 minutes later you start to sweat,nausea follows then comes about 1 hour of relief before the pain starts to increase, head feels cloudy and it's time for another pill.
That is a miserable way to live life.
For the privileged of having such a wonderful experience you are required to sign a "narcotic contract". This tells you your responsibilities as a pain patient. Yup, you guessed it, now you answer to them. You need to be available for urine tests (paid by your insurance only use is to limit liablity of malpractice ins), pill counts on 24 hr notice. If you fail your pain meds are stopped. Yes, in MA even though marijuana is legal the Feds don't agree so marijuana violates you.
Now top this with the fact that many people (not as much here in MA) do not have prescription drug coverage and you ad $4 a bag heroin you get users.
People in my generation were turned off from Heroin usage because of the imagery of dead addicts with needles hanging out of their arms. With the advent of a purer, more refined heroin it is smokable, snortable, etc for the desired effect. This makes it an absolutely viable response for the person being abused by the health care system because they are unfortunate enough to have PAIN!
Not all usage is based off this theory, but it is a significant amount and a result of poor practices created under the guise of helping addicts when it truly only limits liability of the DR's malpractice insurance.