According to a study highlighting the dangers of addiction to this product, more than 80% of New York City drug users take fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid that is leading to a dramatic increase in fatal overdoses in the United States, but only 18% volunteer .
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Manufactured in a lab at a lower cost than heroin, fentanyl has been sweeping the American drug market for years, causing an estimated 70,000 overdose deaths out of a record 106,000 overall in the United States in 2022.
The opioid crisis is one of the biggest public health concerns in the United States, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the over-the-counter sale of an antidote to fentanyl overdoses, Narcan (naloxone), to reverse the trend.
However, if “the overwhelming majority of people surveyed” in the study “said heroin was their primary drug,” “they appear to have few options for avoiding fentanyl,” explains author Courtney McKnight, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at New York University of York University School of Global Public Health.
To arrive at these results, between October 2021 and December 2022, his team conducted toxicological analyzes on a sample of 313 drug users, all of whom answered a questionnaire at the same time, and 162 of whom responded to more detailed interviews.
As a result, 83% of participants tested positive for fentanyl with or without heroin. But “only 18% reported recent intentional use of fentanyl,” according to the study’s findings, published Wednesday in the International Journal of Drug Policy.
For Courtney McKnight, the danger is an increasing addiction to fentanyl, which is much stronger than heroin, and an increased risk of overdoses.
Fentanyl “is a demon,” but “heroin isn’t really good today, it’s shit,” explains Doug, a user cited in the study.
“If you know you’re taking fentanyl, you know you’re going to smell it and get high,” he adds.
“Almost everyone in our sample said they were concerned about overdosing,” Courtney McKnight told AFP. According to their answers, almost one in four users had overdosed at least once in the last six months.
In New York, the number of fatal drug overdoses has risen sharply in recent years, from 942 in 2015 to 2,668 in 2021.
The study authors recommend ways to expand naloxone use and access to substitution products, as well as support for attended drug injection rooms, two of which opened in New York in 2021.