Overdose deaths declined by about 10 percent in the last year

 Drug overdose deaths are decreasing sharply across the country, according to recent state and federal data, a dramatic improvement in the nation’s efforts to reverse the consequences of fentanyl’s spread in the illicit drug supply, reports The New York Times.

Between April 2023 and April 2024, overdose deaths declined by about 10 percent nationally to roughly 101,000, according to preliminary data published recently by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That amounted to the largest decrease on record, according to the Biden administration. Nonfatal overdoses are also down more than 10 percent.

The data suggests that some of the tools used to combat opioid overdoses, such as naloxone, the overdose-reversing medication, were having a significant impact. But researchers and federal and state health officials have puzzled over the exact reasons for the decrease, including why overdoses have fallen so much in recent months.

The pace of the decline “is such an anomaly in the last 20 years,” said Nabarun Dasgupta, a leading drug policy expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who published an analysis this week of the state and federal data.

Some states have reported even greater decreases than the national rate. In Kentucky, overdose deaths dropped by more than a third between April 2023 and March 2024. Arizona, Maine and Vermont all recorded recent decreases of around 15 percent.

North Carolina’s fentanyl overdose rate fell by more than 30 percent from May 2023 to May 2024, Dr. Dasgupta said, a figure that prompted him to call the state’s health department to confirm that the number was real.

Drug overdoses have amounted to one of the most intractable public health crises in modern times, increasing almost every year since the 1970s and peaking at roughly 111,000 in 2022. They declined slightly last year to around 108,000, according to preliminary data.

To read more CLICK HERE

Since 2015, Fentanyl has killed more soldiers than combat

How many soldiers have died from fentanyl, a lethal synthetic opioid? Fentanyl abuse has hit the Army the hardest among military branches and caused a record number of fatal overdoses among soldiers in 2021, the last complete year of data available, according to new figures obtained by The Washington Post.

The emerging scope of drug abuse in the military has alarmed lawmakers, who in late May introduced a bill to compel the Pentagon to publicly release overdose data each year, as well improve treatment for personnel suffering from addiction. The proposed legislation comes as experts say the services have done a poor job tracking overdoses, which have increased among active duty troops in the last two years. And many families contend that preventive measures, including urinalysis tests and rehabilitation, fall short.

Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and five other lawmakers who introduced the bill pointed to rising overdose deaths at Fort Liberty, N.C., and other Army posts, warning that “hundreds of service members have lost their lives to overdose and thousands more nearly did.” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), a veteran who signed onto the bill, called the overdoses across the entire military “an institutional failure and a threat to our national defense.”

The lack of clear data is further complicated by the emergence of fentanyl, which poses an especially acute threat because of its deadly potency and its tendency to be blended with other drugs or disguised as prescription pills.

The Army lost 127 soldiers to fentanyl between 2015 and 2022, according to casualty records obtained by The Post through the Freedom of Information Act. That’s more than double the number of Army personnel killed in combat in Afghanistan during that same period.

At least 27 soldiers died from fentanyl in 2021, the Army’s deadliest year yet. But in February, when asked by senators for statistics on fentanyl overdoses, Pentagon officials reported a number that was half of the figure contained in the records obtained by The Post. When asked about the discrepancy, Pentagon spokeswoman Jade Fulce blamed an accounting mistake.

To read more CLICK HERE

CCJ: Homicides down 4% between 2021 and 2022

The Council on Criminal Justice issued a study that found homicide rates declined between 2021 and 2022. The study examined monthly crime rates for ten violent, property, and drug offenses in 35 U.S. cities in calendar year 2022. 

The number of homicides in 2022 was 4% lower than counts recorded in 2021, representing 242 fewer murders in the 27 cities that publicly report monthly homicide data. The national homicide rate remained 34% higher than in 2019, the year before the pandemic began, and about half the historical nationwide peaks in 1980 and 1991.

Not all cities reported monthly data for each crime, and offense classifications varied somewhat across the cities. The largest city in the sample is New York, with 8.4 million residents. The smallest is Richmond, Virginia, with 227,000 residents. The mean population of the cities for which crime data were available is approximately 1.1 million, while the median population is roughly 652,000. The study cities were selected because their police departments provided incident-level data in near real-time on their online portals.

The incident counts for this report were obtained within days of the end of the study period to provide a timely snapshot of crime across the nation. As a result, these figures may and often do differ from data subsequently published by the police departments and from still other counts released later by the FBI as part of its national crime reporting program. Data updates occur for multiple reasons. For instance, if the victim dies, an incident initially classified as an aggravated assault may be reclassified later as a homicide. For the most up-to-date information for a specific city, please visit its website.

To read the report CLICK HERE

Candidate Trump offers glimpse into his drug fighting proposals

Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president last week.  His widely covered speech did raise some interesting criminal justice proposals, particularly with regard to drug crime.

Trump said China's President Xi Jinping had explained to him that in China, “if you get caught dealing drugs, you have an immediate and quick trial. And by the end of the day, you’re executed.” According to Bulwark, Trump said this is why drug dealers sell their poison in America instead of China: “Why should they sell there and risk their lives every time they sell, when they can come to the United States, and nobody even cares?”

The solution, Trump concluded, was to match China’s speed and severity. “That’s the only answer,” he said. “That’s the only way you’re going to solve the problem. And I hope politicians are listening. Because they should do it quickly.”

 “We’re going to be asking everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs, to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts,” said Trump. He didn’t specify drug kingpins or sellers who cause deaths. He said execution would apply to everyone who sells drugs, despite the U.S. Constitution and the precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court. This would heighten the "war on drugs" to "war crimes on drugs."

To read more CLICK HERE

Not prosecuting drug possession and prostitution is no threat to public safety

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University measured Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s policy to quit prosecuting drug possession and prostitution, finding no increase in citizen complaints or greater threat to public safety, reported the Baltimore Sun.

The researchers issued their results Tuesday after a 14-month study of the policy. Soon after the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, Mosby announced she would cease prosecuting people for possessing drugs, prostitution, and other nonviolent offenses. She also dismissed pending cases of drug possession and prostitution.

Hopkins researchers found she dropped charges against 741 people. Six of those people were rearrested for violent crimes such as robbery and assault, the researchers wrote. That’s less than 1%.

“This suggests that the vast majority of direct beneficiaries of the policy change did not go on to commit crimes threatening public safety,” wrote the four researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Mosby has defended her policy by arguing the prosecution of low-level, nonviolent crimes such as drug possession, open containers and prostitution has disproportionately and harmfully affected minority neighborhoods in Baltimore. The researchers cite statistics that 70% of Maryland’s prison population was Black in 2018 — double the national average. Mosby’s argued tough enforcement can end without an uptick in crime.

“This report demonstrates what we have set out to do as an office — reimagine the criminal justice system, by promoting healthy communities and no longer criminalizing behavioral health issues that do not pose a public safety threat,” Mosby said in a statement.

In March 2020, she announced her policy as a way to reduce the number of people behind bars in Maryland, where they’re at risk of contracting the coronavirus. One year later, she announced the COVID-19 policies would be permanent.

Her policy falls in line with other progressive strategies she brought to Baltimore. In 2019, Mosby announced she would cease prosecuting people for possessing marijuana.

“The data proves that we must continue to move past the era of tough-on-crime prosecution and zero tolerance policing and no longer just default to the status quo of criminalizing mostly people of color for addiction,” she said. “I appreciate the hard work and detailed analysis by the Johns

In the Hopkins study, researchers estimate her policy averted about 440 arrests for drug and paraphernalia possession. Almost 80% of those arrests would have fallen on Baltimore’s Black population, the researchers estimated.

They also counted nearly 4,000 drug-related 911 calls a month before the policy. Afterward, the number of drug-related 911 calls fell to about 2,500, a 37% decrease. And they counted 167 calls a month to 911 about prostitution before the policy. That figure has declined by about five calls a month.

Still, researchers wrote 911 calls may have declined because citizens knew those crimes wouldn’t be prosecuted rather than a reduction in community concern.

“We found these results very encouraging on the whole because we know that putting people into the criminal legal system is harmful to their mental and physical health, and it seems that Baltimore has been able to reduce that problem without incurring a significant cost in terms of public safety,” said Hopkins scientist Saba Rouhani, the study’s lead author.

The researchers conducted the study at the request of Mosby’s office. They noted further study is required to know whether people who use drugs and perform sex work are getting help when they are no longer being criminalized.

TO read more CLICK HERE

 

Sen. Toomey and local officials discuss overdose deaths

Sen. Pat Toomey sat down with Lehigh County law enforcement, addiction specialists and health officials to find out what impact the pandemic had on drug deaths, reported WFMZ-TV.

According to the district attorney's office, drug deaths were up nine percent in 2020, and stand at 69 deaths year to date.

But the DA says some of those deaths are not Lehigh County residents.

"We have a significant number of people from surrounding counties come to Allentown to buy the drugs and overdose here," said Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.

Martin says the Lehigh County Drug Task Force is working aggressively to tackle the out-of-county issue.

And programs like Blue Guardian are helping residents get into treatment within 72 hours of an overdose, with a 50-percent success rate.

Ibn Quawee, an addiction recovery specialist, says in addition to a spike in illegal drugs, there's also an increase in the use of the dangerous synthetic drug K2. He says fear is a major barrier when it comes to treatment.

"A lot of fear of wanting treatment and having to make the choice of whether to have an apartment or am I gonna lose my children," Quawee said.

Health officials told Toomey more needs to be done to tackle why people turn to drugs in the first place.

"The underlying mental health issues, the addictive nature and the problems that develop in the brain that are associated with addiction and increases the incidence of relapse," Toomey said.

Toomey says he's working on several bills that deal with drug treatment, banning analog drugs and penalizing countries that manufacture and ship illegal drugs to the U.S.

To read more CLICK HERE