This week two new records achieved by the United States in recent years were publicly announced and, unfortunately, they are not flattering.
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Although the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have stolen the headlines with news associated with the covid-19 pandemic, this week its scientists and experts pointed to two other much quieter dramas that have been strangling the country for two years: deaths from drug overdoses and murders with firearms.
In two separate reports, the agency presented statistics for 2020 and 2021 that show historic and alarming increases on both fronts over a very short period of time.
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According to figures published by the CDC, in 2021 almost 108,000 people died in the United States due to drug abuse, which represents an increase of 15 percent compared to what happened in 2020, the year in which they already exceeded all historical marks (91,600).
According to figures published by the CDC, in 2021 almost 108,000 people in the United States died from drug abuse
That is, from 2019, when some 70,000 people died in this way, to 2021, there was a chilling 45 percent increase. “This, without a doubt, is the continuation of a terrible trend. The rates have been growing for decades, but since the appearance of covid-19 they have skyrocketed,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, presenting the report with the CDC.
Experts point to various causes. Among them, the psychological effect produced by the long months of social distancing, the absence of support groups, as well as the types of medicines that are used to counteract an overdose.
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But, without a doubt, the biggest of them is the irruption of fentanyl in the illegal drug market. Produced in China, and much of it synthesized in Mexico, fentanyl is up to a hundred times more potent than morphine.
In fact, according to the figures, 70 percent of the deaths that were registered last year due to drug abuse involved fentanyl or a mixture with this substance.
According to the authorities, for some time now there has been a dangerous trend in which fentanyl – an opioid that depresses the nervous system – is mixed in the same dose with methamphetamine or cocaine, both stimulants.
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In the United States, it is common to find what are known as speedballs or goofballs – combined use of heroin and cocaine – and which are usually easy to mix without the slightest suspicion since they are white powders. Likewise, many traffickers, it seems, are using fentanyl, which is very cheap, for the production of pills that they sell on the black market as xanax or oxycodone, two drugs that are supplied under medical prescription and that produce an effect similar to the drugs mentioned.
However, given the high potency of fentanyl in small doses and the lack of rigor of the traffickers when producing them, the chances of an unintentional overdose are very high. Many of those who died, in fact, did not even know that they were consuming this substance.
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Given the high potency of fentanyl in small doses and the lack of rigor of the traffickers when producing them, the chances of an unintentional overdose are very high
“There is an epidemic of intertwined synthetic drugs that we have never seen. That added to the fact that we had no record of a drug as powerful as fentanyl mixed with something as powerful as methamphetamine, whose purity is getting higher and higher,” said Dan Ciccarone, a professor at the University of California who specializes in drug markets in the United States and who assures that it is a “very dangerous” dynamic.
The White House recently released its first national drug control strategy with an emphasis on curbing the epidemic. The novelty of the plan is that, for the first time in decades, it focuses on harm reduction and access to substances such as naloxone, which is a kind of antidote against opiates.
But the way to counteract this parallel, silent and very dangerous pandemic does not look easy at all. And although there are still no official data for 2022, the statistics suggest that the problem will continue to grow, presumably in an overwhelming way.
“We will not see a setback in this in the short term because both the distribution networks and the addictions produced by the consumption of these substances are being incorporated into the communities. Even if the restrictions at the beginning of the pandemic that caused many of these deaths no longer exist, the networks and addicts that were created in that period continue, “says Katherine Keyes, professor of psychology at Columbia University.
Firearms on the rise
In the case of deaths from firearms, the picture is no better than deaths from drug abuse. According to the CDC, in 2020 there were 19,350 murders by this route, an increase of 35 percent compared to the year 2019, being the highest number in 25 years in the United States.
According to the CDC, in 2020 there were 19,350 murders by this route, an increase of 35 percent compared to the year 2019, being the highest figure in 25 years in the United States.
The homicide rate stood at 6.1 per 100,000 people two years ago, and the homicide rate rose sharply among men, teens and young adults, from African-American and Native American communities.
Although the new CDC report does not yet include data for 2021, organizations such as The Gun Violence, and others dedicated to monitoring this phenomenon, put last year’s figure at more than 20,000 deaths. That is, another new record to the already mentioned.
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According to Debra Houry, deputy director of the CDC, this type of violence is already considered a public health problem for the country and hence the role played by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the statistics.
According to the official, 79 percent of all homicides in the US and 53 percent of suicides in 2020 occurred with firearms.
As in the case of drug overdoses, there is no single cause for the increases. But Tom Simon, associate director of the CDC, responsible for the Division of Violence Prevention and another of the authors of the report, is certain that the pandemic exacerbated these existing problems in addition to creating others, including stress, social isolation, economic problems or household instability, especially among the poorest communities and racial minorities.
Of course, the large number of weapons that already exists among the American population is another relevant factor. Something that has also skyrocketed during the years of the pandemic.
In 2021, according to SafeHome, almost 19 million guns were sold, the second highest number in the last two decades and only surpassed by sales in 2020 (21.5 million). In addition to the almost 400 million that already exist among the civilian population, which is estimated at more than one per inhabitant in the country.
SERGIO GOMEZ MASERI
Correspondent for EL TIEMPO – Washington
On Twitter: @ sergom68
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