New York City hit a grim milestone last year, logging a record number of drug overdose deaths.
A total of 3,026 people died of a drug overdose in 2022, the highest number since the city started tracking deaths in 2000, according to city data released on Monday.
Last year’s overdose deaths are up 12% from the 2,696 deaths the city experienced in 2021. The rate jumped to more than 43 overdose deaths per 100,000 city dwellers.
Black New Yorkers had the highest overdose death rate at 62 deaths per 100,000 residents and the biggest rate increase from 2021 to 2022. Out of the five boroughs, the Bronx had the highest overdose death rate last year, with about 74 deaths per 100,000 residents, a jump over the previous year. Staten Island had the second-highest rate.
Middle-aged adults from 55 to 64 had the highest overdose rate of any age group.
Fentanyl is one of the main culprits. The synthetic opioid has been flooding into the U.S. illegal drug market in recent years, primarily from Mexico and China, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine and is deadly in doses as small as 10 grains of salt.
Fentanyl was present in 81% of overdose deaths in New York City last year. More than half of the deaths also involved cocaine.
Besides the ongoing scourge of fentanyl, a new drug is also causing headaches for New York.
Xylazine, or “tranq” as it is known on the streets, is a cheap, flesh-rotting horse tranquilizer mass-manufactured in China that has recently proliferated on the streets of New York, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. The “zombie drug” causes skin lesions that look like flesh is being eaten off, sometimes down to the bone, and can slow a person’s heart and breathing until they stop, leaving users catatonic or dead.
Narcan, the emergency opioid reverse medicine, does not work on “tranq” since xylazine is not an opioid.
New York City has been struggling with a drug overdose crisis for the better part of a decade now.
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Overdose deaths in the city remained at less than 1,000 until 2016, when they spiked to more than 1,400. When the pandemic hit in 2020, deaths spiked again, topping 2,100 fatal overdoses.
The overdose death crisis is killing a person in New York City every three hours, Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said.
Vasan urged all New Yorkers to carry naloxone, brand name Narcan, the opioid overdose-reversing medication. He also urged drug users not to take drugs alone and to seek treatment, saying, “We have a range of options and harm reduction is the foundation.”
New York City offers a slate of “harm reduction” services, including sites that provide drug users with clean syringes and supervision.
Also in June, the city debuted the first of four vending machines that provide free crack pipes, condoms, and Narcan, among other items. Drug addicts can access the items by providing their New York City zip code.
The city’s health commissioner also said, “Everyone should have a candid, judgement-free conversation at your kitchen table about drugs and their danger. We’re all in this together.”