Fentanyl Overdose Death Rate Rises to Nearly 300%; Heroin Fatalities Drops by 40%

The deaths related to fentanyl overdose have increased in the last five years in contrast to the fatality rate of heroin. According to a new report, it has increased to nearly 300%.

Fentanyl vs. Heroin Death Rates

Between 2016 and 2021, there was a 279 percent rise in fentanyl overdose deaths in the United States. There were 5.7 deaths per 100,000 people in 2016 to 21.6 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, according to a study published on May 3 by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Newsweek reported. According to the data, the number of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl increased by 55 percent between 2019 and 2020 and 24.1 percent between 2020 and 2021.

The survey also discovered that in 2021, fentanyl was more frequently associated with overdose deaths than any other substance across all racial and ethnic groups and in most U.S. regions.

Merianne Spencer, a co-author of the report and a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News that they were hopeful they wouldn't see an increase in fentanyl deaths. However, the data highlights that this is an ongoing public health problem."

Meanwhile, overdose deaths related to heroin dropped by 40.8 percent, from 4.9 in 2016 to 2.9 in 2021. During the same time period, there was a 21% decrease in the rate of oxycodone deaths.

According to the CDC, the decline in heroin-related fatalities is also associated with increased access to naloxone. This drug can reverse opiate overdoses and treatment programs for heroin users.

Heroin Users Shift to Fentanyl

DOJ's Drug Enforcement Administration claims that there has been a change from a market based on heroin to fentanyl. Dr. Allison Lin, an addiction psychiatrist at the University of Michigan Medical School, who was not involved in the report, told ABC News that most of our people or patients with substance use disorders predominantly consume fentanyl-heavy drug supply but are unaware of it.

Therefore, those who were using heroin previously are also utilizing fentanyl today. It's just that fentanyl predominates in the supply of opioids and other narcotics in our communities due to its qualities, including how affordable it is, how simple it is to cut with other drugs and other variables.

Lin added that while fentanyl is the primary drug of focus, the meth and cocaine epidemic is still going strong. According to her, different chemicals and factors would impact various populations. Unfortunately, due to fentanyl factors, we see an increase in overdose and death rates among all these categories - American Indians/Alaskan Natives, non-Hispanic Black Americans, and African Americans younger than 24 and older than 65.

For Lin, despite the drop in heroin overdose fatalities, the rise in fentanyl and meth death rates only shows that things got worse because people are using several substances.

Check out more news and information on Fentanyl in Science Times.