More troubling news as the addiction and overdose epidemic continues to spiral out of control: a new study finds that the rate of fatal teen overdoses in the U.S. nearly doubled in 2020 after staying flat for a decade. The report, published in JAMA Network, showed that fatalities are spiking not because of a surge in drug use among 14- to-18-year olds, but rather because of the supply of increasingly deadly drugs such as fentanyl, which is also driving the overall death toll to more than 100,000 annually—a grim record. In fact, the survey showed that fewer teens are actually experimenting with drugs, including during the pandemic despite lockdowns and isolation, and other factors that increase stress. What is killing teens now is drugs such as Xanax or marijuana that are diverted from the legal supply and contaminated with fentanyl by drug dealers, and consumed unawares by young people. In 2020, 954 adolescents fatally overdosed, a rate of 4.5 per 100,000; for the first six months of 2021, the rate rose another 20 percent to 5.5 percent. The new study also noted that the highest adolescent mortality rate was among American Indian or Alaska Native teens; as of 2020, this group had the highest overall overdose mortality rate—some 30 percent higher than white people. To protect young people, we need a nationwide education, prevention, and awareness campaign warning of the dangers of drug use—and especially, contaminated legal drugs laced with powerful fentanyl.
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Rosenthal Center for AddictIon Studies