(ConservativeJournal.org) – According to recent statistics, fentanyl was the cause of death of over 2,000 homeless people in Los Angeles between 2014 and 2023. In 2022, the number of homeless people who died because of a fentanyl overdose increased by 15%.
Last year, the medical examiner for the county recorded over 1,000 deaths from drug overdose among the homeless. Over 700 of those cases were from fentanyl. These numbers show the highest overdose rate in US history. The situation is made worse by the local housing crisis.
Los Angeles has nearly 80,000 recorded homeless people, and most of them do not live in shelters. Currently, more than six homeless people die each day, while existing homelessness treatment programs fail to address the scale of the problem.
Although it hasn’t yet revealed 2023 statistics, the county’s public health agency keeps track of homeless deaths more thoroughly, including whether the victims were on the street or in a shelter. According to their most recent report, the number of overdose deaths among homeless people froze to hit a plateau in 2022, but the number of those who died from fentanyl increased. The overdose mortality rate among the homeless is much higher than among the non-homeless population in LA.
Fentanyl is nearly 60 times more potent than heroin and is cheap to make. Its amount on the streets has surged in California since 2023.
While fentanyl usually looks like fake pills, traffickers tend to lace the pill content, making them more dangerous and highly increasing the risk of overdose. The overdose data usually shows fentanyl victims had multiple drugs in their systems. Homeless people already have high amounts of substance use disorders, so the risk of overdose is even higher due to fentanyl being often disguised in all kinds of drugs, such as cocaine or ecstasy.
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