Fentanyl deaths increase fastest in communities of color – Rolling Stone



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We already know that fentanyl is incredibly dangerous and is involved in more deaths than heroin. However, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights how deadly he is – and who it is the worst.

According to the report, the number of deaths from fentanyl increased 12-fold between 2013 and 2016. The report, which badyzed death certificates that included references to fentanyl or drugs such as fentanyl, indicates that even 39, there were only Of the 1,600 deaths from fentanyl overdose in 2011 and 2012, this number has increased in recent years and peaked at 18,000 fentanyl deaths in 2016. "These are pretty amazing numbers in terms of percent increase per year," said researcher Merianne Spencer, a statistician at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. US News and World Report.

The CDC report not only highlighted the impressive number of deaths badociated with fentanyl overdoses, but also revealed the populations most affected by the epidemic: people of color. The study showed that fentanyl-related mortality rates were rapidly increasing in both Blacks and Hispanics. Deaths related to fentanyl increased by 140.6% per year in the black community and 118.3% per year in the Hispanic community.

The CDC report takes the results of a study conducted last February by Stanford University, which found that the number of opioid overdose deaths was increasing in cities with a strong African-American population, such as Washington, DC , where the opioid mortality rate has tripled in recent years. The authors of the study wrote that although the opioid crisis has always been perceived to affect mainly low-income whites, "a wider range of populations [are now] be affected by the spread of the epidemic from rural areas to urban areas and by the significant increase in opioid-related mortality observed in the black population. "

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