Mar 14, 2022 06:12 PM
https://www.statnews.com/2022/03/11/over...ladelphia/
EXCERPTS: The reports from Philadelphia and clues that xylazine was cropping up in other parts of the country inspired the researchers and colleagues to try to track the expansion of the drug across the continental United States. And in a paper published this month, they reported a steep jump in just a few years: In the 10 places studied, xylazine was found in 0.36% of overdose deaths in 2015. By 2020, it was 6.7%. In some places, it was appearing in 1 in 5 overdose deaths.
“It’s been a structural shift, and it’s caught on,” said anthropologist Philippe Bourgois of UCLA, one of the authors of the paper and a member of the team who did the work in Philadelphia, which involved living for stretches in local neighborhoods to study drug markets, poverty, and violence.
[...] The study underscores several facets of the worsening U.S. overdose crisis, which is now killing more than 100,000 people a year. It highlights how adulterated — and in turn, increasingly dangerous — the drug supply has become. For example, fentanyl, once largely found in the supply of opioids like heroin, is now more frequently polluting stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. It also shows the lengths to which researchers have to go to keep up with the evolving drug supply, at a time when federal data can be outdated by the time they’re released.
“The drug supply is really a mess right now,” said Joseph Friedman, an addiction researcher at UCLA and the first author of the paper. “The number of contaminants is just spiraling out of control, and it’s really hard to keep track of. People are not buying what they think they’re buying, or they don’t know what they’re buying.”
Friedman said his instinct was generally not to be alarmist about emerging drug trends, given the hysteria that has historically accompanied drug use. But even as much more needs to be learned about xylazine, Friedman said early signs suggest it’s an “especially noxious contaminant that is spreading through the drug supply.”
The new study provides a more sweeping and contemporary look than past reports at what’s happening with xylazine in the continental United States. Many places don’t screen for it regularly, and federal drug and overdose data — whether from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Drug Enforcement Administration — are at best months old when released... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The reports from Philadelphia and clues that xylazine was cropping up in other parts of the country inspired the researchers and colleagues to try to track the expansion of the drug across the continental United States. And in a paper published this month, they reported a steep jump in just a few years: In the 10 places studied, xylazine was found in 0.36% of overdose deaths in 2015. By 2020, it was 6.7%. In some places, it was appearing in 1 in 5 overdose deaths.
“It’s been a structural shift, and it’s caught on,” said anthropologist Philippe Bourgois of UCLA, one of the authors of the paper and a member of the team who did the work in Philadelphia, which involved living for stretches in local neighborhoods to study drug markets, poverty, and violence.
[...] The study underscores several facets of the worsening U.S. overdose crisis, which is now killing more than 100,000 people a year. It highlights how adulterated — and in turn, increasingly dangerous — the drug supply has become. For example, fentanyl, once largely found in the supply of opioids like heroin, is now more frequently polluting stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. It also shows the lengths to which researchers have to go to keep up with the evolving drug supply, at a time when federal data can be outdated by the time they’re released.
“The drug supply is really a mess right now,” said Joseph Friedman, an addiction researcher at UCLA and the first author of the paper. “The number of contaminants is just spiraling out of control, and it’s really hard to keep track of. People are not buying what they think they’re buying, or they don’t know what they’re buying.”
Friedman said his instinct was generally not to be alarmist about emerging drug trends, given the hysteria that has historically accompanied drug use. But even as much more needs to be learned about xylazine, Friedman said early signs suggest it’s an “especially noxious contaminant that is spreading through the drug supply.”
The new study provides a more sweeping and contemporary look than past reports at what’s happening with xylazine in the continental United States. Many places don’t screen for it regularly, and federal drug and overdose data — whether from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Drug Enforcement Administration — are at best months old when released... (MORE - missing details)