The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that drug poisonings are among the top causes of mortality for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. According to CDC estimations, over 110,000 Americans overdosed on drugs in 2022; around 70% of these deaths included illicitly produced fentanyl and its analogs (IMFs).
Strong synthetic opioids like fentanyl are frequently used in medical settings to treat pain, but they are also being produced illegally and abused more and more. Fentanyl has a potency up to 50 times that of heroin and 100 times that of morphine. A dosage of fentanyl of about 2 milligrams is equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, which is deadly. Fentanyl produced illegally can be detected in heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and counterfeit medications.
In King County, fentanyl poisonings and overdoses resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,067 individuals in 2023 due to the drug’s enhanced lethality and accessibility. In comparison, 714 individuals died in 2022—a 47 percent rise.
How is this taking place? The federal Drug Enforcement Agency reports that fentanyl is present in seven out of ten tablets supplied to kids/teens. Not all fatal drug overdoses are the result of deliberate drug abuse. Many people have turned to friends or social media for medications for pain relief or other medical needs, not realizing that the pills they took were fakes containing deadly amounts of fentanyl—just two milligrams is all it takes to kill someone.
Like the majority of states in the union, Washington has not been exempt from the concerning rise in fentanyl availability, overdoses, and their aftereffects.
1,619 people in Washington died as a result of an opioid overdose or poisoning in 2021. 26.3 out of 100,000 Washingtonians lost their lives to opioids in 2022. And for those under 30, fentanyl and drug overdoses are currently the biggest causes of mortality. 2023 saw 190 children under 24 years old pass away from fentanyl and drug overdoses or poisoning.
It attacks every community and has no bounds. Records indicate that the DEA removed 4.8 million fatal doses of fentanyl from Washington state in 2023. The availability and toxicity of these fake fentanyl tablets led to an increase in overdose deaths in Washington along with a rise in seizures across the state. Widely available fake prescription medications may contain lethal amounts of fentanyl.
Apparently, the United States is dealing with more than just the fentanyl crisis. 786,838 persons were registered on state sex offender registers in 2023, according to the Safe Home 2023 report. Comparing this to 2022, there has been an approximate 3% growth.
As of February 2024, the Nannostomus sex offender dataset indicated that there were 688,799 registered sex offenders in the United States, with Texas (97,386), California (82,751), and Illinois (33,149) reporting the highest numbers. On the watch list for sexual predators, the Northern Mariana Islands, Michigan, and the Menominee Tribes have the fewest reported cases. By the end of the year, who knows how many we’d have.
Not heart disease, cancer, or even COVID—although those conditions are also very harmful to the populace—but rather the quantity of overdose fatalities from synthetic narcotics like fentanyl and the trauma from sex assaults are the real threats to American life on a daily basis.