U.S. legislation enforcement officers seized greater than 115 million drugs containing illicit fentanyl in 2023—a dramatic improve that consultants say is “alarming” and exhibits the necessity for elevated public well being efforts to forestall the distribution of those drugs and doable overdoses.
A brand new research printed Monday within the International Journal of Drug Policy discovered that the variety of particular person drugs containing fentanyl that was seized by legislation enforcement was 2,300 occasions better in 2023 than in 2017. In whole, 115,562,603 drugs containing fentanyl have been seized in 2023, whereas 49,657 have been seized in 2017. The research additionally discovered that the proportion of drugs that have been seized to the whole variety of fentanyl seized greater than quadrupled—in 2023, drugs represented practically half of illicit fentanyl seizures, whereas they represented simply 10% in 2017.
“Availability of illicit fentanyl is constant to skyrocket within the U.S., and the inflow of fentanyl-containing drugs is especially alarming,” Joseph J. Palamar, the research’s lead writer and an affiliate professor at New York College’s Grossman Faculty of Medication, mentioned in a press launch from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Public well being efforts are wanted to assist forestall these drugs from falling into the palms of younger individuals, and to assist forestall overdose amongst individuals taking drugs that unsuspectingly comprise fentanyl.”
Of the practically 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021, greater than 75% concerned an opioid, in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many consultants link the overdose crisis to the spread of illicit fentanyl, which is an artificial opioid that’s about 50 occasions stronger than heroin. As little as two milligrams of the drug could possibly be deadly, in line with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The brand new research discovered that the majority legislation enforcement seizures of fentanyl befell within the western U.S., though traditionally, legislation enforcement seizures have been much less frequent in that a part of the nation. Researchers mentioned of their research that this highlights the significance of monitoring fentanyl provides in numerous areas to enhance the general public well being response.
The research was funded by the NIH’s Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse. Researchers collected information for the research by way of the Excessive Depth Drug Trafficking Areas program, a grant program administered by the Workplace of Nationwide Drug Management Coverage that goals to scale back drug trafficking and misuse.
Legislation enforcement seizures can assist point out the supply of illicit medication, even when they could not replicate the prevalence of drug use, in line with the NIH press launch.
