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Teen Overdose Deaths ‘Nearly Doubled’ in 2021

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2021 was “the deadliest year in U.S. history” and “the coronavirus is not solely to blame” reports the Associated Press. While CDC data shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, as did diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke, one tragic computation is teenage overdoses.

Data research suggests that although “drug use among teens is down”, unfortunately “adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population.” The largest jump in overdose deaths is among 14-to 18-year-olds, according to CDC data.

Although full data has not yet been finalized due to necessary lab work and investigations in drug overdose deaths, “provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at lease 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021.”

That number significantly jumped up from the 93,000 deaths from 2020. Tragically, the number of overdose deaths in adolescents were “fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.”

Those numbers almost doubled in 2020, to 954, researchers estimate the total will hit  nearly 1,150 for 2021. The large spike is considered “unprecedented” by Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author.

Fentanyl is considered to be the reason behind what is killing our youth in increasing numbers.

The Associated Press reports fentanyl is a “highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs that teens sometimes abuse.”

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War on Drugs

Kilo of fentanyl found on children’s mats at Bronx daycare, 4 children overdosed, 1 year old boy dies

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Two Bronx daycare employees have been charged by federal prosecutors after fentanyl was found on top of children’s mats. The drug findings were connected to the poisoning of at least four children, all younger than 3 years-old. Tragically, one of the children, a one year old boy, died.

The two adults were charged with narcotics possession with intent to distribute resulting in death and conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death.”This case reflects every parent’s worst nightmare,” New York Police Department Commissioner Edward Caban said in a statement. “These alleged drug traffickers brazenly went about their illicit business in one of the most ill-conceived locations imaginable, but they will be held accountable.”

The Center Square reports:

Prosecutors alleged that over the summer, Mendez and Acevedo Brito and others conspired to distribute fentanyl, including at a children’s daycare center in the Bronx. The complaint alleges the two “maintained large quantities of fentanyl, including a kilogram of fentanyl stored on top of children’s playmats.”

On Sept. 15, four children, all younger than 3 years old, appear to have experienced the effects of poisoning from exposure to fentanyl.

Before Mendez called 911 to summon medical assistance for the children, she called another person, referred to as an unnamed co-conspirator in the complaint. That person came to the daycare, stayed for about two minutes and then left out a back alleyway carrying two shopping bags. This happened while the children were unresponsive.

“Tragedy doesn’t begin to describe the events that took place at Divino Niño Daycare,” said Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino III of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Field Division. “This death and drug poisonings are every parent’s worst nightmare and clearly define the danger fentanyl poses to every New Yorker.”

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