New data from the Washington State Department of Health show that deaths from drug overdoses continue to increase for Washington residents. Provisional data as of April 4 shows drug-related overdose deaths surpassed 2,000 in 2021, a more than 66 percent increase compared to 2019.<\/p>\n
“Overdose deaths are a public health emergency, and fentanyl is a major driver,” said Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, chief science officer with the Washington State Department of Health. “What looks like a prescription oxycodone pill could be a counterfeit with more than enough fentanyl to kill.”<\/p>\n
Kwan-Gett said people who use drugs should assume that any drugs bought on the street, online, or from a friend has fentanyl.<\/p>\n
WSDOH says overdose deaths are increasing across all groups, and more than half of these deaths are due to fentanyl. Fentanyl overdose deaths have increased about 10-fold since 2016.<\/p>\n
According to the agency, most deaths involved more than one substance, notably psychostimulants like methamphetamine. They also say a majority of people dying from overdose tend to be male and 45-years-old or younger, and the increase in overdose deaths is fastest growing among Black, Latinx, and Native American and Alaska Native people.<\/p>\n
Officials with WSDOH are now recommending that people close to drug users keep multiple doses of naloxone, the opioid overdose reversing drug that can be lifesaving.<\/p>\n
“Carrying naloxone can make the difference between life and death in many overdose situations,” said Kwan-Gett. “It can be effective for all opioids, including fentanyl, but in some cases may require more than one dose to reverse an overdose.”<\/p>\n
Naloxone is available at many community organizations and pharmacies in Washington. To access naloxone at a pharmacy, call ahead to make sure they have it in stock and show this standing order to the pharmacist<\/a>, which is a prescription for everyone in the state to use. Use this link to find naloxone near you<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" WSDOH reports a 66 percent increase in drug overdoses since 2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":56653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56652"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=56652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}