From WN

The latest report about drug-related deaths from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said America’s drug crisis has some rising causes of fatal overdoses, including cocaine, psychostimulants such as methamphetamines, MDMA, methylphenidate (commonly sold as Ritalin) and caffeine on Thursday, according to The Associated Press.

The report said during 2017, there were 23,139 overdose deaths involving those drugs, which is nearly a third of the total overdoses for that year at 70,237. 

The report warned cocaine-related overdose deaths increased by more than fifty percent between 2015 and 2016, while psychostimulant-related overdose death rates rose 33 percent.

The researchers noted cocaine-related overdose fatalities were stable from 2003 through 2006, but steadily rose by nearly 11 percent every year until 2012. 

The CDC also said the decline in cocaine-related overdose deaths was likely due to a combination of a drop in the supply chain and an increase in cost. 

During 2017, 73 percent of all cocaine-related overdose deaths also involved opioids, while half of the psychostimulant-related overdose fatalities also involved opioid use for that same year. 

Research Mbabazi Kariisa of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this new trend has already led to rates of drug overdoses involving cocaine, psychostimulants, or both had already risen by more than 42 percent between 2015 and 2016. 

The researchers said it was the combination of cocaine and the other drugs being mixed with strong opioids, including the super-potent fentanyl.

Synthetic opioids, which would include fentanyl, often played a deadly role, a fact confirmed by an emergency physician to AP.

“While much attention continues to focus on addressing opioid abuse and misuse, it’s vital that we don’t ignore the dangers that cocaine and other psychostimulants present,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, who practices at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

Dr. Glatter said some drug users may not know the substances they’re taking contain fentanyl or other drugs, but even cocaine alone increased a person’s odds for death.

“Cocaine use elevates blood pressure, weakens the heart muscle, promotes the formation of plaque in the coronary arteries, thereby increasing the risk of heart attack,” Glatter said. “It also may precipitate a stroke by virtue of its effects on plaque formation in blood vessels that supply the brain.”

The CDC said the trend was most prominent in young women aged 15 to 24, but young men were also at higher risk.

The Western U.S. had the highest number of fatal overdoses involving psychostimulants, while the number one reason in the Midwest was from cocaine.

–WN.com, Maureen Foody

For more on this story go to: https://article.wn.com/view/2019/05/03/cdc_report_says_the_opioid_epidemic_and_cocaine_deaths_are_l/