CDC Report: Fentanyl Killed 70K People In 2021, NIDA Director Volkow Says Findings Not Surprising

As the opioid crisis continues to destroy thousands of lives every year, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals the horror of a specific danger...fentanyl. The report comes several weeks after the Biden administration declared fentanyl combined with xylazine to be an emerging threat to the country, a first in history.

What happened: Previous CDC reports tended to report overdose deaths detailed by broader drug categories, with fentanyl for example grouped with other synthetic opioids like tramadol and nitazenes, which is a synthetic opioid even more potent than fentanyl. However, in this new report released Wednesday, researchers focused on the specific drugs that are listed on death certificates for people who died of overdoses, also highlighting demographic differences, reported CNN.

Highlights from the report include:

• In 2021 alone, nearly 70,000 people in the US died due to a drug overdose involving fentanyl. That’s almost 4 times the number of people five years ago.

• Fentanyl was the most common drug involved in fatal overdoses across age groups, race and ethnicity groups and gender in 2021. 

• The report breaks down 2021 overdose death data by methamphetamine (31,170), cocaine (26,198), heroin (9,471) and oxycodone (5,060). 

• Only the number of oxycodone-related deaths decreased in five years (from 2016 to 2021), while the deaths involving the other 4 substances rose. 

• Around two-thirds of all overdose deaths in 2021 involved potent synthetic opioids, fentanyl was often found in combination with other drugs that caused ODs. 

Understanding Differences Is Necessary

Why it matters: According to experts, data on specific substances involved in overdoses is necessary to examine and update drug policies and create treatment programs. 

“We need to know exactly what people are dying from so we know what services they need to stay alive,” said Caleb Banta-Green, a research professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine’s Addictions, Drug & Alcohol Institute who was not involved in the new report.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said the report's findings were not surprising.

“It’s just so widespread,” she said, per CNN. “These are some very clear statistics that I found very, very useful. Understanding these differences is crucial because then you can target intervention to address the risk.”

Can Marijuana Help?

The idea of cannabis being a viable alternative to opioids is being discussed.

In April, the Texas House approved medical marijuana as a pain relief alternative to opioids.

Scientists at Indiana University Bloomington have developed CBD-based compounds that could be a potential substitute for naloxone, the only drug currently available to reverse opioid overdoses. CBD-based compounds have been found to reduce fentanyl binding and enhance the effectiveness of naloxone, reported the American Chemical Society.

Photo: Benzinga edit with images by Wikimedia Commons and Ewa Urban from Pixabay