Synthetic opioid is killing more Americans than ever before read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/704-synthetic-opioid-is-killing-more-americans-than-ever-before

According to new research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. With more people dying of fentanyl overdoses now than ever before, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), figuring out where that fentanyl is coming from will be critical to keeping people safe.

Synthetic opioids are killing frequently number of people in the US, and the cause for the surging death rates is likely the growing trade in illegally manufactured fentanyl, 

But outside the clinic, black market fentanyl can be mixed with or sold as heroin, or added to counterfeit prescription drugs without buyers knowing.

It’s possible Prince overdosed by taking counterfeit hydrocodone pills laced with fentanyl.

Doctors prescribe it as an injection, patch, lollipop, or nasal spray for patients with severe pain that can’t be treated with morphine.

Not every state tracks fentanyl deaths separately from deaths caused by other synthetic opioids, but in the six that did, the number of people who died of a fentanyl overdose climbed to 1,400 in 2014 from less than 400 in 2013. Nearly the same amount as the total increase in synthetic-opioid related deaths. 

Today’s study, published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, investigated what’s causing this surge in overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids.

Across 27 different states, the number of people killed climbed from 3,105 in 2013 to 5,544 in 2014. The most occurred in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, and North Carolina.

 In those states, non-Hispanic white men between the ages of 25 and 44 were the most at risk.