Fentanyl deaths increase by 129 percent

Huge increases in fentanylrelated deaths across the state are drawing concern from the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH).

NMDOH data has not yet been finalized, but preliminary numbers show a 129 percent increase in fentanyl overdoses from 2019 to 2020. A 93 percent increase was recorded in 2019 alone compared to 2018.

“We started seeing rises even before the COVID [pandemic] and it keeps on rising,” said Dr. Robert Kelly, NMDOH epidemiologist.

Kelly says the rising drug overdose death rate from fentanyl is part of a third wave of the opioid epidemic. The first wave was driven mainly by OxyContin and other pain relieving opioids. The second wave was caused mostly by heroin. Now the U.S. is entering the third wave of synthetic opioids, like fentanyl. About two out of three overdose deaths, in New Mexico, involved an opioid in 2019.

Kelly says these shifts in waves – from prescription pain relievers like OxyContin – can be traced by examining data his department collects. This informs different agencies about the rising problem in a specific population as well. As prescription drugs are monitored more closely, “the supply with that drug goes down,” he said. This leads to a rise in the number of people looking for other drugs that aren’t as closely controlled by federal agencies. Currently, fentanyl is cheaper to produce for sellers, according to Kelly, which is another possible reason there is an increase in fentanyl use.

New Mexico has the 12th highest drug overdose rate in the U.S. In Taos, there were more overdose deaths per capita than Santa Fe County and Bernalillo County from 2014 through 2018. Rio Arriba County has been greatly affected with overdose deaths per capita. Rio Arriba County experienced 92.8 deaths per 100,000 people.The NMDOH marks Taos as a county that needs improvement based on their data.

Fentanyl is typically prescribed as a transdermal patch or in lozenge form for patients enduring severe pain after surgery. Kelly notes that fentanyl is often mixed in combination with substances like heroin to enhance its effects.

Fentanyl is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Kelly said there are generally two groups that use it. One group is actively looking for fentanyl, he said, and are familiar with its effects. The other group are people unaware that their heroin or other substances contain fentanyl.

“There are different technologies that are available that are cheap and easy to use, that people can use to check their drugs to see if there is fentanyl in it or not,” said Kelly. One of these technologies are fentanyl test strips that can detect if there is fentanyl in a user’s drugs. Kelly said this can have people make more informed decisions about whether to not use the drugs or be more cautious as to how they use it.

The Biden administration in April announced public health departments with opioid federal grant money can purchase fentanyl strips.

“New Mexico is in the process of getting the test strips out there,” Kelly said. “There are legal issues that need to be cleared up first.”

He said other than increasing awareness of the spread of fentanyl and drug-detecting technologies like fentanyl strips, the other way to curb overdose deaths is to lessen the stigma around addiction.

According to a 2018 survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), almost 90 percent of Latinx people struggling with a substance-use disorder did not seek treatment. Access to treatment and also possible stigmatization around addiction are all possible factors for why other minority groups, like Native Americans and Black Americans, all experienced exceptionally high opioid overdose death rates in the U.S., according to the CDC.

A survey by Research & Polling Inc. and the CDC found that: “New Mexicans were divided on whether someone addicted to prescription opioids has an illness (39 percent) or a personal weakness (35 percent). This split is similar to findings from national surveys. Nearly one in five New Mexicans (19 percent) answered ‘Both.’ “

Kelly and NMDOH want to rid the stigma of trying to get help for an addiction, and emphasize that addiction changes the chemical makeup in the brain.

“Ninety-five percent of people that are addicted get off of [an addiction] with proper treatment,” said Kelly.