More than 80% of New York City addicts use fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid responsible for the sharp increase in fatal overdoses in the US, but only 18% of those addicts are aware of it, a new study has found.

Fentanyl is produced in laboratories at a much lower cost than heroin and has been flooding the US market for years. It is estimated to be responsible for 70,000 of the 106,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2022.

The opioid crisis is a major public health concern in the US, and the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved an over-the-counter fentanyl overdose antidote, Narcan (Naloxone), to address this problem.

“The vast majority of those interviewed” in the study “said heroin was their drug of choice,” but “there doesn’t seem to be a way for them to avoid fentanyl,” explained Courtney McKnight, clinical professor of epidemiology at New York University. Washington School of Public Health, New York.

McKnight’s team came to this conclusion after conducting a toxicological analysis of a sample of 313 drug addicts. 162 of them then also took part in interviews between October 2021 and December 2022.

It was found that 83% of these users tested positive for fentanyl. But “only 18% said they had recently knowingly used fentanyl,” according to a study published today in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

Courtney McKnight noted that there is a risk that these people will become dependent on fentanyl, which is stronger than heroin, and therefore the risk of overdose increases.

In New York, the number of overdose deaths has risen sharply in recent years, from 942 in 2015 to 2,668 in 2021.

Source: APE-MPE, AFP.