‘Fourth wave’ of crisis reaches every corner of the US
America has reached a very grim milestone as a “fourth wave” of a fatal crisis rolls through every state, a new study has revealed.
A “fourth wave” crisis is claiming more lives than ever in America due to a combination of fentanyl with other drugs, researchers have found.
The US hit a grim milestone in 2021, with overdose deaths topping 100,000 for the first time. That figure is fuelled by the rise of the synthetic opioid with stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine.
Overdoses were once the result of heroin and prescription opioids, however synthetic opioids took over in the mid-2010s. Polysubstance overdoses – meaning multiple drugs – are the new challenge.
Overwhelmingly, the proportion of overdoses involving fentanyl and a stimulant rose more than fifty-fold from 2010 to 2021, according to a new study published in the journal Addiction.
