According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, reports of fentanyl identified in forensic laboratories increased from 5,541 in 2014 to 100,378 in 2019 in the United States. The growth of fentanyl in the United States over the past decade has been substantial. The CDC splits opioid deaths and overdoses into four different categories, natural opioids (which include morphine, codeine and semi-synthetic opioids like oxycodone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and oxymorphone), methadone, synthetic opioids other than methadone (fentanyl and tramadol) and heroin.Īccording to the CDC, “reports indicate that increases in synthetic opioid-involved deaths are being driven by increases in fentanyl-involved overdose deaths, and the source of the fentanyl is more likely to be illicitly manufactured than pharmaceutical.” These numbers increased in 2019, with the CDC reporting that nationwide “overdoses involving opioids killed nearly 50,000 people in 2019, and nearly 73 percent of those deaths involved synthetic opioids.” Synthetic opioid-related deaths other than methadone, including fentanyl, also increased in 2018 to 1,825 in Maryland and were involved in upwards of 90 percent of all opioid-related deaths. In 2018, Maryland’s opioid-related death statistics were even higher than the national average, with 2,087 deaths, making up “nearly 90% of drug overdose deaths,” according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
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