Manufactured in a lab, at lower costs than heroin, fentanyl has been flooding the U.S. drug market for years and has caused about 70,000 overdose deaths in 2022 out of a record 106,000 in the United States.

The opioid crisis is one of the number one public health problems in the United States, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently authorized the overdose antidote for fentanyl overdoses, Narcan (naloxone), to curb this trend.

However, while "the overwhelming majority of respondents" in the study "said heroin was their main drug," they "seem to have few ways to avoid fentanyl," says its author, Courtney McKnight, clinical assistant professor of epidemiology at New York University's School of Global Public Health.

To arrive at these results, his team conducted toxicological analyses on a sample of 313 drug users, all of whom responded to a questionnaire in parallel, and 162 of whom responded to further interviews, between October 2021 and December 2022.

"Demon"

As a result, 83% of participants tested positive for fentanyl, with or without heroin. But "only 18 percent said they had recently used fentanyl intentionally," add the results of the study, published Wednesday in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

For Courtney McKnight, the danger is an increased dependence on fentanyl, much more potent than heroin, and consequently an increased risk of overdoses.

Fentanyl "is a demon," but "heroin today isn't really good, it's crap," says Doug, a user quoted in the study.

"If you know you're taking fentanyl, you know you're going to feel it (and) you're going to get high," he adds.

"Almost everyone in our sample said they were worried about overdosing," Courtney McKnight told AFP. According to their responses, nearly one in four users had overdosed at least once in the previous six months.

New York has seen the number of fatal overdoses skyrocket in recent years, from 942 in 2015 to 2668 in 2021.

The authors of the study recommend expanding naloxone use and access to substitute products, as well as support for supervised drug injection rooms, two of which opened in New York City in 2021.

© 2023 AFP