By Grace Toohey
Fentanyl has continued to tighten its deadly grip on Los Angeles, with the synthetic opioid causing the majority of fatal overdoses countywide in 2022.
For the first time in recent years, fentanyl surpassed methamphetamine as the most common drug listed as a cause of overdose deaths, according to a recent report from the L.A. County Department of Public Health. Fentanyl was blamed in almost 60% of all accidental drug or alcohol overdoses in 2022, the report said, and has continued to disproportionately kill Black Angelenos.
Overdoses in general increased again in almost every measure from the prior year, further escalating a crisis fueled by the opioid epidemic, which has devastated communities across the nation.
We have a violent crime , homelessness and fentanyl crises all rolled up in one and this is what @SupJaniceHahn calls governing. Politicians are the problem. https://t.co/Bn5sXSU8R8
— Marvin McCoy (@MarvinM83905936) December 12, 2023
In 2022, the county recorded 3,220 accidental overdoses, of which more than 1,900 were caused at least in part by fentanyl, county data showed. (Multiple drugs can be listed as the cause of an overdose death.) Since 2016, overdoses in L.A. County have increased almost threefold, and there were about 200 more overdose deaths in 2022 than in 2021.
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
The largest number of fentanyl overdose deaths were recorded among white Angelenos and in affluent areas, but when accounting for population, Black people and those living in higher-poverty areas died of fentanyl overdoses at significantly higher rates. The fatal overdose death rate for Black residents was more than three times that of Latinx Angelenos in 2022, and almost two times that of white residents — disparities that have continued to widen over the last few years. However, the rate of hospitalizations for fentanyl overdoses were similar among white and Black Angelenos.
“In the case of race/ethnicity, Black people account for 8% of the [county] population, and disproportionately accounted for 21% of fentanyl overdose deaths in 2022,” the report said.
Source: L.A. Times
