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Replies to post #16840 on Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc (TTNP)
More than 87,000 Americans died of drug overdoses over the 12-month period that ended in September, according to preliminary federal data, eclipsing the toll from any year since the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s.
The surge represents an increasingly urgent public health crisis, one that has drawn less attention and fewer resources while the nation has battled the coronavirus pandemic.
The preliminary data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a 29 percent rise in overdose deaths from October 2019 through September 2020 — the most recent data available — compared with the previous 12-month period. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl and other synthetic opioids were the primary drivers, although many fatal overdoses have also involved stimulant drugs, particularly methamphetamine.
And unlike in the early years of the opioid epidemic, when deaths were largely among white Americans in rural and suburban areas, the current crisis is affecting Black Americans disproportionately.
“Dealers are lacing these non-opioid drugs with cheaper, yet potent, opioids to make a larger profit,” she said. “Someone who’s addicted to a stimulant drug like cocaine or methamphetamine is not tolerant to opioids, which means they are going to be at high risk of overdose if they get a stimulant drug that’s laced with an opioid like fentanyl.”
The surging death rate eclipses modest gains made during President Trump’s term against the nation’s entrenched addiction epidemic. During his administration, several billion dollars in grants to states allowed more drug users to get access to the three F.D.A.-approved medications for opioid addiction — methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone — that work by suppressing cravings and symptoms of withdrawal. Naloxone, the overdose-reversing drug that has saved thousands of lives, also became widely distributed.
