United States: According to the latest reports, an overdose of deadly fentanyl may have reached the highest level in Washington state, as per preliminary data made public.
More about the news
The reports suggest that by the end of 2023, there will be a nine percent downfall in the quarterly death toll across the state after a rise almost every quarter since 2019.
Moreover, although synthetic opioid fatalities are still on the increase in various regions of the state, the rate in King County has dipped since July 2023, when almost four individuals lost their lives every day, on average, from overdoses involving fentanyl, kuow.org reported.
What more are the experts stating?
According to Caleb Banta-Green, a research professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, the change in pattern is major because of several Seattle-area fentanyl users who have already died.
Moreover, as Banta-Green noted, “There are only so many people who are using a drug, and when it has that high of a lethality rate, it will eventually — in a really horrific way — start to self-extinguish itself like a forest fire,” kuow.org reported.
“So, it’s literally burning out the fuel. The horrible thing in this instance is the fuel is people,” he added.
Banta-Green also hopes that the grim curve was also observed on the East Coast, where fentanyl took hold earlier.
Therefore, the experts said, “I hope we continue to have a decline, but I hope that the future decline isn’t because people are dying, but because they’re accessing the really wonderful life-saving interventions that we’re really making great strides to make more widely available.”
This would include replacement drugs such as buprenorphine and methadone, which would lessen opioid intake levels, as well as lower users’ risk of fatal overdose.