CLEVELAND, Ohio — The amount of overdose deaths among teens ages 14 to 18 increased dramatically in the past few years, even though the number of teens using drugs overall has declined, according to a new study.
Between 2010 and 2019, overdose deaths among teens ages 14-18 remained relatively steady at about 500 per year. But they jumped to 954 in 2020 and to 1,146 in 2021. The increase in overdose deaths comes despite use of drugs among the age group falling to 18.7%, down from 30.4% just a few years earlier.
A primary problem is the use of fentanyl, the study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes. The Drug Enforcement Agency says the synthetic opioid is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. Fentanyl was involved in more than 77% of adolescent overdose deaths in 2021, the study says.
“This is not coming from more teens using drugs. It’s actually coming from drug use becoming more dangerous,” study author Joseph Friedman tells CNN.
Fentanyl 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.
“Teenagers don’t seek out illicit opioids, [but] they do seek out prescription opioids and that has always been one of their favorite drugs: Vicodin, OxyContin, hydrocodone,” Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, tells NPR. “And they also seek out benzodiazepines.”
Fentanyl continues to take a toll on the overall population. Overdose deaths reached a record high in 2021, with about 106,000 people dying in 2021, ABC News reports.
This, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history, according to the Associated Press. It’s resulted in life expectancy in the U.S. falling to 77 years, more than half a year lower than in 2019.