Tag: overdoses

Study: Recreational Marijuana Legalization Linked to Fewer Opioid Overdose Deaths

Using event studies and a two-way fixed-effects, difference-in-differences approach modeled on the work of Callaway and Sant’Anna, the study found a consistent negative relationship between legal marijuana markets and opioid mortality. According to the data, recreational legalization is associated with a reduction of about 3.5 opioid overdose deaths per 100,000 people.

The study was conducted by researchers from West Virginia University, Angelo State University, New Mexico State University, and the American Institute for Economic Research

The researchers also discovered that states that adopted legalization earlier tended to see stronger declines in overdose deaths compared to later-adopting states. The findings held up through numerous robustness checks, suggesting a stable association rather than a temporary or coincidental effect.

These results add to a growing body of research suggesting that marijuana access may play a role in reducing reliance on opioids, potentially informing future public health and drug policy decisions. The authors note that their work highlights the importance of considering marijuana laws as part of a broader strategy for addressing the opioid epidemic.

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Fentanyl Involved In 70% Of US Drug Overdose Deaths

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about fentanyl is the fact that, due to its low price and high potency, it is often used to lace other drugs.

Whether it’s heroin, cocaine, meth or counterfeit pills mimicking prescription opioids such as Vicodin or Oxycontin – fentanyl is frequently used to increase the potency of illicit drugs, often unbeknownst to the user.

As Statista’s Felix Richter reports, this hidden presence dramatically increases the risk of accidental overdose, since people may take what they believe is a familiar drug but are actually playing a game of Russian Roulette, always in danger of ingesting a lethal dose of fentanyl.

According to CDC data, synthetic opioids, i.e. mostly fentanyl, are now involved in 7 out of 10 overdose deaths in the U.S. after having contributed to a dramatic surge in drug-related mortality over the past decade.

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A New Study Adds to the Evidence That Drug Busts Result in More Overdose Deaths

Prohibition makes drug use more dangerous by creating a black market in which quality and potency are highly variable and unpredictable. Ramped-up enforcement of prohibition magnifies that problem, as dramatically demonstrated by the deadly impact of restricting access to pain medication at the same time that illicit fentanyl was proliferating as a heroin booster and substitute. That sort of perverse effect pervades drug law enforcement, as illustrated by a new study that found drug seizures in San Francisco were associated with a substantial increase in overdose risk.

The study included 2,653 drug seizures and 1,833 opioid-related deaths from 2020 to 2023. “Within the surrounding 100, 250, and 500 meters,” RTI International researcher Alex H. Kral and his two co-authors reported in JAMA Network Open on Wednesday, “drug seizures were associated with a statistically significant increase in the relative risk for fatal opioid overdoses.”

That is not the result that local authorities expected. “Since fentanyl entered the unregulated drug supply in San Francisco, California, around 2019, overdose mortality rates have reached record highs,” Kral et al. note. “This has sparked increased enforcement of drug laws.”

In December 2021, then-Mayor London Breed “declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to enable ‘more coordinated enforcement and disruption of illegal activities.'” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins, who took office in July 2022, “made combatting open-air drug markets and holding drug dealers accountable a top priority of her administration,” her office brags. In May 2023, Kral et al. note, Gov. Gavin Newsom “authorized the assignment of California Highway Patrol and California National Guard personnel to a new multiagency operation with the San Francisco Police Department aimed at ‘targeting fentanyl trafficking, disrupting the supply of the deadly drug in the city, and holding the operators of drug trafficking rings accountable.'”

How did all of that work out? The day after cops busted drug dealers, Kral et al. found, the risk of fatal overdoses rose by 74 percent, on average, within 100 meters. The increase in risk persisted for as long as a week, falling to 55 percent after two days, 45 percent after three days, and 27 percent after seven days. That pattern reinforces the conclusion that these police interventions, which aimed to reduce drug-related deaths, had the opposite effect.

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Grand jury recommends Alabama police department be ‘immediately abolished’

An Alabama grand jury has recommended that a city’s police department be “immediately abolished,” finding there is a “rampant culture of corruption,” officials said Wednesday while announcing the indictment of five of the agency’s officers, including its police chief.

Five Hanceville police officers were arrested and charged amid a probe into the department, Cullman County District Attorney Champ Crocker said. The spouse of one of the officers was also charged, he said.

“This is a sad day for law enforcement, but at the same time, it is a good day for the rule of law,” Crocker said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Crocker provided limited details on the case. Though the investigation encompassed the department’s evidence room and the death of a Hanceville dispatcher, 49-year-old Christopher Michael Willingham, who was found dead from a toxic drug combination at work, officials said.

The Cullman County grand jury found that the Hanceville Police Department has “failed to account for, preserve and maintain evidence and in doing so has failed crime victims and the public at large,” making the evidence “unusable,” Crocker said.

The grand jury further found that Willingham’s death was “the direct result of the Hanceville Police Department’s negligence, lack of procedure, general incompetence and disregard for human life,” Crocker said.

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Legalizing Marijuana Led To ‘Immediate Decline’ In Opioid Overdose Deaths In U.S. States, New Research Concludes

A newly published paper examining the effects of adult-use marijuana legalization on opioid overdose deaths says there’s a “consistent negative relationship” between legalization and fatal overdoses, with more significant effects in states that legalized cannabis earlier in the opioid crisis.

Authors of the new analysis, published to the preprint repository Social Science Research Network (SSRN), estimated that recreational marijuana legalization (RML) “is associated with a decrease of approximately 3.5 deaths per 100,000 individuals.”

“Our findings suggest that broadening recreational marijuana access could help address the opioid epidemic,” the report says. “Previous research largely indicates that marijuana (primarily for medical use) can reduce opioid prescriptions, and we find it may also successfully reduce overdose deaths.”

“Further, this effect increases with earlier implementation of RML,” authors wrote, “indicating this relationship is relatively consistent over time.”

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Oregon sees record overdose deaths in 2023 despite national decline: report

Despite the US seeing an overall national decline in overdose fatalities Oregon experienced the second-largest surge in drug overdose deaths of any state in 2023, setting a record in the state. The findings come as Oregon has been one of the most pro-drug states in the country over the last few years.

Federal data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that roughly 1,880 people in Oregon died from overdoses involving opioids, stimulants, and other substances last year—representing a 35 percent increase from 2022 and setting a record for overdose deaths in the state. Only Alaska, with a 45 percent year-over-year increase, saw a sharper rise in 2023.

Nationwide, overdose deaths declined by 2 percent in 2023, dropping from 109,400 in 2022 to 107,700. This marked the first national decrease since 2018. However, Oregon’s overdose death rate has grown dramatically—by 237 percent since 2018—far outpacing the 58 percent national increase during the same period. 

Jonathan Modie, a spokesperson for the Oregon Health Authority, noted that preliminary data for 2024 indicates a possible decline in overdose deaths. 

“Our very preliminary 2024 data show Oregon is seeing a similar trend in overdose decrease,” Modie said, according to  Oregon Live, “but we are not sure why at this point.”

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Hollywood producer accused of murdering two women could have more victims

A Hollywood producer charged with the murder of a model and her friend who overdosed on drugs was slapped with additional sexual assault charges for unrelated cases — and there could be more victims, LA County District Attorney George Gascón said.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Gascón formally announced David Pearce was charged with the deaths of model Christy Giles and her friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, whose bodies were dumped at two separate hospitals on Nov. 13, 2021.

Pearce, 37, was initially arrested the following month and charged for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting four women.

On Tuesday, Gascón said investigators found enough additional evidence to link Pearce with the deaths of Giles and Cabrales-Arzola, and the rape and sexual assault of three additional victims.  

“We knew that this was going to be a lengthy investigation, and we started with the charges we knew that we could prove,”  Gascón said at the press conference. “Most had to do with the using and the administration of drugs.

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US Hits Highest Number of Overdose Deaths in History as White House Adds Billions to Drug War Budget

In March, the Biden administration announced a historic and massive increase in funding for National Drug Control Program agencies. For FY 2023, the US plans on spending $42.5 billion to continue fighting the failed war on drugs. This month, the Centers for Disease Control also released some historic numbers — as the US spends more on the drug war than ever in history, more people have died from drug overdoses than any recorded time in American history.

107,000 — that is the number of people who overdosed on drugs in 2021. Overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, up 23% from the year before. There also was a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine and a 34% increase in deaths involving meth and other stimulants, according to the CDC.

Upon releasing these numbers, the White House called the sharp increase in overdose deaths “unacceptable” and promised to spend more money fighting an already failed drug war. While some of that budget will go toward treatment, most of it will go toward enforcement — because it has worked so well in the past.

“The net effect is that we have many more people, including those who use drugs occasionally and even adolescents, exposed to these potent substances that can cause someone to overdose even with a relatively small exposure,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said in a statement, calling this latest increase “staggering.”

It is indeed staggering. Most people in this country now know someone who has died from an overdose and despite this massive increase in deaths, the United States government is going to attack it with more of the same — and it is costing taxpayers dearly. In the last 4 years, enforcement has gone up — at a rate of 5,000 percent — clearly illustrating that it is having no effect at all.

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Fentanyl Overdoses Leading Cause of Deaths in America in 2020

The government has reported that, since the year 2020, fentanyl overdoses have become the new leading cause of death for American adults between the ages of 18 and 45, as reported by Fox News.

The analysis from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) shows that nearly 79,000 Americans died from the drug between 2020 and 2021. Of those, just over 37,000 died in 2020 while almost 42,000 died in 2021. Fentanyl is an opioid that is sometimes laced with other drugs such as meth and heroin when used by addicts, but can also be deadly on its own in even small doses. The primary foreign sources for imports of the drug are China and Mexico.

Fentanyl overdoses have surpassed all other leading causes of death in the last two years. By contrast, only about 53,000 Americans between the ages of 18 and 49 died of the Chinese coronavirus from 2020 to 2021. Fentanyl has also claimed more lives in this age group than car accidents, suicide, gun violence, and breast cancer, among others. The number of overall fentanyl deaths in the last two years has also surpassed previous years’ totals, doubling from about 33,000 to 64,000 between 2019 and 2021.

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CDC: Overdose Deaths Are Worst Ever

More Americans died of drug overdoses between April 2020 and April 2021 than in any previous yearlong period, the Centers for Disease Control reported Wednesday.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics found that more than 100,000 Americans died of overdosing, a nearly 30 percent spike from the year before and more than double the number of deaths in 2015.

“These are numbers we have never seen before,” National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow told the New York Times.

The Times reported that the spike in deaths was largely caused by increased use of fentanyl, a powerful opioid. The Washington Free Beacon reported on Wednesday that Customs and Border Protection in October captured nearly 1,050 pounds of fentanyl, the fifth-highest amount in three years.

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