By Eric Scicchitano
The Daily Item
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Drug overdose deaths are in decline in Pennsylvania and across the country, according to new preliminary federal data.
Year-over-year provisional counts of fatal drug overdoses show a 17% drop nationwide as of July, according to the latest data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 94,112 estimated deaths is the lowest 12-month total since December 2020. Should the trend hold as more data is reported — there are monthslong lags for varied complications — it could end with 2024 falling below 100,000 fatal drug overdoses in a calendar year.
The U.S. has eclipsed that figure annually since at least 2021, according to federal data.
The year-over-year decrease in fatal drug overdoses is more dramatic in Pennsylvania — 24% as of July.
“There are fewer families facing an empty seat at the table, particularly during this holiday season,” said Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
There were an estimated 5,195 deaths in Pennsylvania year over year in July 2023. The anticipated 12-month total dropped to 3,937 one year later.
The count is the lowest the commonwealth experienced since July 2016, the last time Pennsylvania had a provisional count of fewer than 4,000.
It’s worth noting that the commonwealth’s eight largest year-over-year provisional counts all occurred one year later in 2017, each one exceeding at least 5,500.
The nation’s provisional count has been in decline since November 2023 while Pennsylvania’s began in June last year.
While the implications are positive, last year in Pennsylvania, one person died of a fatal drug overdose every two hours, according to the Commonwealth’s Office of Drug Surveillance and Misuse Prevention.
Snythethic opioid
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are by far the most common substances detected in drug overdoses.
The Biden administration pointed to three main reasons for the decline, according to published reports — wider availability of the opioid overdose reversal medication, naloxone, since it’s been approved for sale over the counter, an increase in medication-assisted therapy for addiction, and efforts to disrupt the trafficking of fentanyl.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s annual National Drug Threat Assessment found that synthetic drugs including fentanyl and methamphetamine are responsible for most fatal overdoses.
The DEA, as it has for several years and administrations, blames smuggling operations of Mexican drug cartels, particularly the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, and South America for trafficking opioids into the U.S. largely along the southwest border with Mexico.
The cartels obtain precursor chemicals from China to manufacture synthetic opioids and rely on organized crime within that country to launder profits, according to the DEA.
Naloxone, commonly known by the brand name Narcan, isn’t a narcotic and can’t be abused itself. It’s credited with saving thousands of lives. A study by Penn State released in 2022 found that someone experiencing an opioid overdose was nine times more likely to survive when administered naloxone.
Pennsylvania has separate standing orders allowing firefighters and law enforcement officers to use naloxone and for pharmacists to dispense the medication to the public without a prescription. A coalition of first responders, municipal leaders and treatment advocates have petitioned Pennsylvania to expand its order to include additional FDA-approved reversal medications.
Emergent BioSolutions, which manufactures Narcan, said in June that 64 million doses of the nasal spray form had been distributed nationwide since first approved in 2015 including 22 million in 2023, the year it was approved for over-the-counter sale.
Carla Sofronski, executive director and co-founder, of Pennsylvania Harm Reduction Network, said the decline in deaths is good news but that there are myriad issues beneath the surface that need addressing.
There’s a rapid rise in stimulant abuse, especially methamphetamine, and frequently illicit opioids and stimulants are mixed or used together. Data show Black and Brown communities are increasingly struggling with elevated rates of fatal overdose. And, there remains a stigma against harm reduction efforts like clean needle services that could counter another growing consequence of intravenous drug abuse — the spread of infectious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.
“Whenever we see a decrease in numbers and a life not lost to preventable death, that is something to celebrate,” Sofronski said. “I still feel unnerved. In Pennsylvania, we’re still looking at a very high death toll.”
While Pittsburgh and Philadelphia have local ordinances to allow syringe services, the practice isn’t legal under state law. Two western Pennsylvania lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle, Republican Rep. Jim Struzzi and Democratic Rep. Lindsay Powell announced their intent to introduce bipartisan legislation to legalize and regulate the harm reduction practice.
Struzzi led the successful push to legalize drug test strips, a method to detect the presence of fentanyl in opioids before injection.
Fentanyl’s presence in a particular street drug isn’t always known since it can be cut into cocaine or counterfeit pills. Harm reduction advocates say the strips allow substance users an opportunity to rethink their next dose, even if it’s ensuring they wait to use with another person or have a dose of naloxone on standby to reverse the opioid’s effects.
It also buys them more time to potentially seek recovery from addiction.
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