New data from the CDC finds that counterfeit prescription pills made to look like oxycodone or other painkillers but contaminated with fentanyl are now responsible for two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths across the country, which reached a record 100,000 in the 12-month period ending in April. The report indicates steep increases in counterfeit pills, which surged 33 percent in the Midwest, 54 percent in the South, and 94 percent in the West, in 2019 and 2020. It also shows that four in 10 of the people who died had also used stimulants and just over half had no pulse when first responders found them. In response, the CDC calls for urgent action to slow and reverse overdose deaths involving fentanyl, including harm reduction and expanding access to substance use disorder treatment.
Meanwhile, corrections officials in Colorado say fentanyl is flooding the state’s prisons and jails and driving an increase in overdose fatalities. There have been a least three overdose deaths in the past 13 months, as more and more hard-to-detect, fentanyl-laced narcotics show up in state facilities. There have been more drug seizures by guards, but these drugs can be absorbed in paper and mailed to inmates. Officials are calling for the use of drug-sniffing dogs to stop the flow, but it would also be important to expand drug treatment programs for incarcerated individuals.
And finally, at a time when overdoses are soaring, the arrival of two new, high-dose versions of the overdose reversal drug naloxone would usually be welcomed. But the drugs, recently approved by the FDA in response to the growing presence of powerful fentanyl, are controversial. Some critics say they are unnecessary and could even make matters worse, causing survivors to go into abrupt and dangerous withdrawal. Prescriptions for naloxone have surged in recent years in a bid to increase access, but it’s not clear if the new high-dose versions—up to 12 times as strong as the original—are more effective than the original lower-dose version.