More overdose deaths now linked to smoking drugs instead of injections: Research

More deaths caused by overdosing have now been linked to people smoking drugs, as opposed to injections, according to a recent government study.

The study, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), found that from 2020-22, the percentage of overdose deaths related to smoking drugs increased by 73.7 percent, while injection deaths decreased by 29.1 percent.

In 2022, the report found that there were more than 109,000 drug overdose deaths in the United States. More than 70 percent of those deaths were related to “synthetic opioids,” such as illegally manufactured fentanyl (IMF), per the study.

While deaths involving IMF and stimulants have increased steadily in recent years, in 2022, they made up the most commonly documented source of death related to overdosing — rising from 2,794 to 5,843.

Illegal fentanyl is a powerful drug that has been cut into heroin or other drugs.

According to the report, more overdoses in Western states occurred due to a transition away from injecting heroin to smoking IMF.

Since 2011, the number of adults who inject drugs increased from 774,000 to nearly 3.7 million in 2018, the CDC reported. The dramatic increase occurred because people shifted “from prescription opioid misuse to the use of heroin and IMFs.”

While the number of adults who injected drugs increased during that period, the data now points to a high number of people who are smoking drugs.

The latest research is the largest look at how Americans took the drugs that killed them, the CDC reported. The Associated Press noted that officials decided to start studying the topic after reports came out of California that found smoking fentanyl was more common than injecting it.

Early research has suggested smoking fentanyl is somewhat less deadly than injecting it because it’s not as concentrated as it is in a syringe, the AP noted, but both methods carry a risk of overdose and it’s not yet clear that smoking the drug will reduce overdose deaths.