Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht of King County shows an image of a common fentanyl pill that was found in King County. (Aaron Granillo, KIRO Radio)
Fentanyl has been a leading cause of fatal overdoses in Washington State for years, and in 2020, this has never been more evident.
The context behind fentanyl overdoses in Washington State
In the second quarter of 2020, there were 171 overdoses involving fentanyl, according to data from Caleb Banta-Green, a scientist at the Institute for Alcohol and Drug Abuse (ADAI) at the University of Washington.
In the same period in 2019, Washington saw only 63 overdoses of fentanyl; two years before that, they were 18.
This makes it a trend that Banta-Green describes as “amazing”.
“We are at the end of a wave that is being built across the country, so we have quickly moved from a low point to a high point,” he told UW Medicine in a recent Q&A.
Fentanyl is commonly found in counterfeit pills made to look like prescription opiates, such as oxycodone. The risk comes from the fact that fentanyl is 30 to 50 times stronger than pure heroin, and a dose the size of a few grains of salt can be fatal.
As Banta-Green settles, it began to spread for the first time along the East and Midwest Coast in 2013, before gradually making its way to the West Coast in the United States. As for whether the marked increase in 2020 could have been caused by the pandemic, he believes there could very well be a correlation.
“We know that a person is more likely to die from an overdose if he is alone. Everyone had more time alone last year, “he said. “It is a reasonable theory that overdoses would jump with a drug in large quantities, mixed with the continuous pressures of social determinants of health, and in addition the isolation and stress of a pandemic.”
“What’s interesting, though, is that we haven’t seen the same surge in heroin and pharmaceutical opioids – just fentanyl. We don’t know why, “he added.
In the coming months, Banta-Green believes Washington has a chance to “gain better control” over the situation, pointing to unique statewide intervention methods.
This is driven by ADAI’s “rapid access to reduced barriers to out-of-court care,” by educating people on how to recognize fentanyl in counterfeit pills, distributing thousands of naloxone kits that reverse overdose, and promoting addiction treatment. with drugs such as buprenorphine and methadone.
Seattle will fund 700 naloxone kits as part of the fentanyl awareness
“Much of our work at ADAI seeks to understand the problem, to understand how clinicians deal with it, and to train clinicians at the state level in an approach that includes first drugs, including client-centered, decision-making. common, “he stressed.
You can read more about ADAI’s work in Washington on their website here.