Fentanyl crisis: US overdose deaths reach alarming levels

In the United States, fentanyl is the leading cause of most drug overdose deaths. It is often added to other drugs, which greatly increases its danger. The scale of deaths shown in the graphs is alarming.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid used to combat highly severe pain. It is a substance similar to morphine but about one hundred times more potent and about fifty times stronger than heroin. This synthetic drug epidemic has also reached Poland, but for over two decades, it has primarily been a problem in the United States.

The number of deaths caused by fentanyl overdoses in the USA from 1999 to 2022 is immense. In 2022 alone, about 74,000 people died.

This was the highest number of deaths from fentanyl overdoses ever recorded in the United States and a significant increase compared to the number of deaths reported in 2019.

Fentanyl overdose is currently the main driver of the opioid epidemic and is responsible for most overdose deaths in the United States.

According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is one hundred times more potent than morphine and becomes addictive much faster than heroin. Just a 3-gram pinch of pure substance is a lethal dose.

Americans look at all the statistics with horror. According to the "New York Times," more Americans died from fentanyl in one year than the total number of Americans killed during the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam combined.

It is worth noting that the total number of fentanyl-related deaths slightly decreased in 2023, from about 74,000 to 72,000. Meanwhile, the number of fatal overdoses from psychostimulants (including methamphetamine) and cocaine increased from about 64,000 to 66,000.

As the graph shows, back in 1999, there were 730 deaths. The first significant increase appeared in 2015 with 9,580 deaths, and the worst year in this regard was 2022.

Researchers indicate that smoking or inhaling fentanyl allows the drug to reach the brain faster and in much higher concentrations.

This, in turn, justifies the assumption that it may be a more dangerous method of drug use, leading to severe damage. At the same time, they add that the significance of the substance itself cannot be underestimated.

Researchers do not hide that they expect confirmation of more cases of leukoencephalopathy in the near future, as the number of fentanyl use cases increases.

There are also data indicating that in the United States, more people die from smoking illegal drugs than from injecting them.