Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Associated Press
Published on 2024-02-16 15:15:05
A new government study suggests that smoking has surpassed injecting as the most common way of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was published by the agency on Thursday. It is claimed to be the largest study to look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them. The CDC decided to pursue this topic after reports from California suggested that smoking fentanyl was becoming more common than injecting it. This potent, illicit version of the painkiller is involved in more U.S. overdose deaths than any other drug.
Lauren Tanz, the lead author of the study, indicated that some early research has suggested that smoking fentanyl may be somewhat less deadly than injecting it. However, both injection and smoking carry a substantial overdose risk, and it is not yet clear if a shift toward smoking fentanyl reduces U.S. overdose deaths. Illicit fentanyl, in powder form, has increasingly been cut into heroin or other drugs and has been a primary driver of the U.S. overdose epidemic in recent years. The study is significant in light of the increase in drug overdose deaths in the U.S. due to fentanyl, especially after two big leaps during the pandemic.
The traditional method of taking fentanyl has mainly been injecting, but the new study found that smokers of fentanyl are on the rise. People put the powder on tin foil or in a glass pipe, heat it from below, and inhale the vapor. Smoked fentanyl is not as concentrated as the injectable form, but some drug-takers see benefits in smoking it, including avoiding the abscesses and infections associated with injections.
The study gathered its data from a national database built from death certificates, toxicology reports, and reports from coroners and medical examiners. A significant trend was observed between early 2020 and late 2022, with the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of smoking rising 74% while the percentage of deaths with evidence of injection fell 29%. The number and percentage of deaths with evidence of snorting also increased, although not as dramatically as smoking-related deaths.
It’s important to note that determining the exact percentages of deaths that occurred after smoking, injecting, snorting, or swallowing drugs is complicated. In many cases, people may have used multiple drugs in different ways, and in others, no drug-taking method was identified. Despite these limitations, the study found that in late 2022, smoking was the most common drug-taking route in the West and Midwest, and roughly tied with injecting in the Northeast and South.
Alex Kral, a researcher at RTI International who studies drug users in San Francisco, noted that the study has its limitations, and it can be challenging to ascertain the how and why of an overdose death, especially if no witness was present. Overall, the study serves as a significant resource in understanding the changing patterns of drug use and overdose deaths in the United States.
