At Victory, we are continuously working with patients who suffer from addictions to drugs and alcohol. Since our founding in 2018, we have observed that each patient has their own special history and story. While each patient is unique, there are some similarities between patients in the methods used to take drugs and achieve a “high”.
New Statistics from the CDC
There are new statistics and data, according to a government study, that show that more drug users are dying from smoking drugs rather than injecting them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided to analyze the methods by which users take drugs, once they learned that more users were smoking fentanyl rather than injecting it. The CDC learned about that new statistic from data out of California.
Dangers of Fentanyl
The “positive” news from this information is that smoking a drug, such as fentanyl, is generally less risky and dangerous than injecting it. However, let’s be clear – fentanyl is an extremely dangerous drug no matter how it is administered. Fentanyl is a very strong and powerful drug – just a tiny amount (such as the size of a few grains of sand) can prove to be deadly.
In 2022 alone, there were more than 109,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States. More than 70 percent of those deaths were related to “synthetic opioids,” such as illegally manufactured fentanyl (IMF).
Although the smoked version of fentanyl is less concentrated than the injected version, many users prefer to smoke it because it eliminates all the skin infections such as blisters and rashes that come from the injection method. By choosing to smoke the drugs, some users have more confidence in their physical appearance, as they can mask the visual symptoms of drug use.
From early 2020 to late 2022, researchers determined that overdose deaths with evidence of smoking drugs rose 74%, yet the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of injection fell by 29%.
COVID-19 Pandemic Contributed to Drug Use
A major increase in drug use nationwide occurred during the pandemic. Anxiety increased, along with feelings of depression and isolation. The problem with that, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH), is people who use drugs are at a higher risk of getting the virus that causes COVID-19.
According to the NIH, an analysis of electronic health records from more than 73 million patients at 360 U.S. hospitals in June 2020 found that while people with substance use disorders made up only 10.3% of the study sample, they accounted for 15.6% of patients diagnosed with COVID-19.
The key message here is that although deaths are occurring more often via smoking drugs rather than injecting, these are still actual deaths – and any form of overdosing is an issue. While smoking the drugs may be less risky in some respects than injecting, many users are still dying from smoking drugs.
Victory Recovery Partners Can Help
Victory Recovery Partners is a network of five addiction and recovery centers on Long Island, New York. With locations in Massapequa Park, Farmingville, Shirley, Hicksville, and Hempstead, we provide total care under one roof. This includes behavioral health, medication-assisted treatment, psychiatric, and wellness services. Additionally, our Farmingville location is now offering Methadone as a treatment method for opioid use disorder. If you or someone you know is suffering with an addiction, we would like to help. Learn more by visiting our website, www.victoryrp.com
