Drug Overdoses Haven’t Improved in Two Years, but Recent Data from the Biden-Harris Administration Reveals a Rapid Rise in Fatal Overdose Deaths

Despite the improvement, annual drug overdose deaths in July were still 25% higher than they were two years earlier and more than 50% higher than they were five years earlier. The types of drugs involved in fatal overdoses have changed.

The data released by the CDC showed that synthetic drugs were involved in two-thirds of overdose deaths. Psychostimulants, such as methamphetamine, were involved in nearly a third.

Fentanyl and methamphetamine are often found in combination with other drugs, including cocaine and heroin, according to a statement from Dr. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

While we are seeing a flattening in overdose deaths, the Biden-Harris Administration continues to focus on making sure more people connected to the care they need is linked to the care they need, preventing fatal overdoses with the antidote, and fighting drug traffickers through targeted sanctions.

Obtaining and monitoring more real-time data on opioid overdoses that do not end in death could help predict where overdose deaths are more likely to happen and where there might be an increased need for first responders as well as the life-saving medication naloxone, which temporarily reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, Gupta said last week.

In July alone, emergency medical services responded to more than 390,000 calls for assistance that involved the administration of the overdose-reversing medication, and almost four times as many as the same month last year.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of narcotics have been seized by US Customs and Border Protection, according to the statement.

Why Do First Responders Reported Opioid Overdoses Often Do Not Expend the Same Day as They Did in the Emergency Room

“Reports involving first responders who sought medical care following exposure generally did not find opioids in their system,” Wen said. “Much of the time, their symptoms were consistent with panic attacks (i.e. shortness of breath manifesting as gasping for breath–versus opioid overdose results in loss of consciousness that then depresses respiration).”

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But news organizations repeating the reports without scrutiny are fueling a stigma about the second-hand dangers of the drug, potentially harming or delaying help for those in need of immediate assistance and creating a feedback loop for anxious first responders.

Dr. Leana was an emergency physician and CNN medical analyst and said that overdoses were very rare for law enforcement officials and first responders.

Wen explained that opioids “are not well-absorbed through the skin except through prolonged exposure” and, outside biowarfare situations, are “not aerosolized and inhaled through the air.”

“There is a danger to media accounts with unsubstantiated claims of first responders overdosing after brief, accidental exposure,” Wen told me. It may discourage people from helping those in need.