Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : April 13, 2022 11:41 AM IST
Dangerous counterfeit pills are spreading across the US.
Researchers at the University of California have raised an alarm over the rising cases of drug overdose deaths among U.S. teenagers amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In a study published in JAMA, they revealed that the rate of adolescent drug overdose deaths nearly doubled in 2020, the first year of the COVID pandemic, and rose 20 per cent in the first half of 2021, compared with the 10 years before the pandemic.
However, the study said that rates of illicit drug use among teens remained generally stable during the same period.
"Drug use is becoming more dangerous, not more common," said lead author Joseph Friedman, an addiction researcher and M.D. and Ph.D. candidate at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, as quoted by Science Daily.
As claimed by Friedman, the rise in teen drug death rate is almost entirely due to illicit fentanyls, which are now commonly found in counterfeit pills. The researcher cautioned that these counterfeit pills are spreading across the US, and teens apparently do not realize how dangerous they are.
The UCLA research team used the CDC WONDER (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research) database, and calculated drug overdose deaths in adolescents aged 14 to 18 years that occurred from January 2010 to June 2021.
They found 518 adolescent overdose deaths in 2010, and a steady rate of 492 deaths each subsequent year through 2019. But, in 2020, there was a sharp increase to 954 deaths, rising to 1,146 deaths in early 2021.
Friedman noted that fake versions of prescription drugs such as Xanax, Percocet and Vicodin, also contributed toward the increase in overdose deaths.
Friedman underscored that there is urgent need to inform teens about this rising danger. He suggested that accurate information about the risk of these drugs needs to be presented in schools, as they are most likely to contain illicit fentanyls.
Further, he noted that the presence of fentanyls in pills and powders can be tested by using testing strips, which are easily available today. In addition, there is a need to educate and increase access to naloxone, which can reverse overdoses, in schools and places frequented by teens, he added.
