Study: A staggering increase in methamphetamine deaths

[April 14, 2023]  By Zeta Cross | The Center Square contributor

(The Center Square) – Methamphetamine-related deaths are up 50-fold in the past 20 years, a study led by professor Rachel Hoopsick of the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana has found.

The death rate for methamphetamine users in the U.S. has gone from 608 deaths in 1999 to 52,397 deaths in 2021, Hoopsick’s study found.

Hoopsick’s team combed through national death certificate data to try to determine what is driving the off-the-charts methamphetamine overdose rate. What has changed in the past 10 years is the toxicity of the unregulated street drug supply, Hoopsick said.

Users can never be sure of what they are buying. They try to buy meth or heroin and they walk away with stand-ins and fillers that can include deadly synthetic fentanyl. Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Even tiny amounts of fentanyl can be lethal.

The increase in methamphetamine mortality is coupled with a proportional increase in deaths that involve heroin or fentanyl, Hoopsick’s study found.

Because of synthetic fentanyl, drug overdoses are happening much more frequently and overdoses are much more deadly than they were 10 years ago.

Eight people in Illinois die every day from drug overdoses, more than twice the number of people who are killed in car crashes or by gun violence.

In the Illinois legislature, House Minority Leader Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, is putting her clout behind House Bill 3203, which would permit pharmacists and retail stores to sell fentanyl test strips over the counter. If the bill becomes law, county health departments would be allowed to give out taxpayer-subsidized fentanyl test strips free of charge to the consumer.

“There is a tremendous amount of evidence that robust harm reduction measures, like making fentanyl test strips readily available, can reduce substance-related morbidity and mortality,” Hoopsick told The Center Square.

Abstinence does not work, Hoopsick said.

“We need to meet people where they are, and not leave them there,” she said.

Other harm-reduction measures that are preventing deaths include syringe service programs and access to free naloxone, an overdose reversal agent. Chicago has mobile units that bring supplies to users out in the community.

It seems counterintuitive, Hoopsick said, but safe sites where addicts can go to inject drugs are showing promise.

“Supervised drug consumption sites have been having great success in Rhode Island … and in some localities, like New York City,” Hoopsick said.

People are more likely to die if they overdose when they are alone, Hoopsick said.