While the face of the opioid crisis is thought to be predominantly white and rural, overdose deaths among Latinos have skyrocketed in recent years, with experts attributing the rising numbers to the rise of fentanyl, especially among others mixed with drugs.
According to a report published this month in the American Journal of Epidemiology, overdose deaths among Latinos have nearly tripled since 2011.
According to study co-author Magdalena Cerda, professor and director at the Center for Opioid Epidemiology, overdose deaths increased dramatically when fentanyl was mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, compared to heroin or prescription painkillers. are more prevalent among Latinos. and policy at NYU Langone.
Between 2007 and 2019, fatal overdoses among Latinos from opioids mixed with cocaine increased by 729%, and when mixed with methamphetamine, they increased by 4,600%. “There are a lot of products in all medicine at this point in time, except for cannabis, that is contaminated with fentanyl,” Cerda said.
It’s not clear whether this mixing occurs on purpose or by accident, but researchers believe both are occurring, according to Cerdá. Fentanyl is highly addictive, so some dealers may mix it with other drugs to make their customers more dependent. On the other hand, there are people who intentionally take fentanyl because they have developed a tolerance to the opioid and need higher doses.
Experts warn that the opioid epidemic is entering a new phase: What began in the early 2000s with prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin is now almost entirely dominated by the illegal traffic of fentanyl, Which is a far more deadly synthetic opioid, almost identical to heroin but 50 times stronger. More powerful, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Although Latinos in general have historically had lower overdose rates than whites, “you see it’s rising, so it’s really worrying,” she said.
The opioid crisis had already taken a deadly turn in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic when overdose deaths skyrocketed and Latinos themselves were hit hard. In Nevada, according to the CDC, while drug overdose deaths increased 54.5% among people of all races and ethnicities from 2019 to 2020, it rose 119.7% among Latinos.
Latinos represent only 8.6% of rural areas and 19.8% of urban areas, according to Department of Agriculture data, but they are the fastest-growing segment of the rural population.
Latinos have recently been more affected by the fentanyl crisis because a larger proportion of them live in cities, such as New York, Miami, San Diego, and Los Angeles, where fentanyl has had more penetration, whether by itself or with other drugs. Be mixed, according to Washington Post investigative reporter Scott Higham, author of “American Cartels: Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry,” who participated in a January USC Annenberg online discussion on the issue.
But smaller cities with large Latino populations are experiencing an alarming rise in opioid deaths, as was the case in Carrollton, Texas, which reported overdoses among teens under 14 in a city with more than 30% Latinos. Death was observed.
More information needed—and better treatment options
Carlos Quintanilla, a Dallas-based Latino activist with the nonprofit Acción America, told NBC News after the teen overdose death in Carrollton: “You have to go to the markets, you have to go to the businesses. You have to go to the soccer field.” You will have to go out and plan a comprehensive attack to deal with this deadly situation.
Latino researchers studying addiction also point to the need to study specific Latino subgroups.
For example, researchers Manuel Cano of the University of Texas at San Antonio and Camila Gelpi-Acosta of the City University of New York (CUNY) found that Puerto Ricans had a higher death rate than any other Latino or non-Hispanic. The black group between 2015 and 2019, and also outpaced whites from 2017 to 2019.
The researchers stressed the importance of studying Latinos, not as a group, but subgroups, when it comes to opioid addiction and deaths, such as those in the U.S. or were born abroad, if they lived in different communities, and educational attainment.
When it comes to opioid addiction treatment, Cerda said it is common in some Latino communities to find religious rehabilitation centers that focus on “faith-based treatment” versus “evidence-based treatment.”
These approaches emphasize prayer and willpower to fight addiction, rather than using drugs such as naloxone, a much less potent and addictive opioid, which has been shown by numerous studies to help addicted people more safely. can help you quit with fewer relapses.
This lack of evidence-based rehab centers is one reason Puerto Ricans struggle in particular, especially those who live on the island.
For Latino immigrants, issues surrounding the legal status and language barriers make it more difficult to obtain help at rehabilitation centers that may offer Latino support, and cultural and religious barriers further complicate matters.
Meanwhile, more Latino families are struggling to make sense of overdose deaths among people who didn’t have a history of addiction or didn’t even know they were taking opioids.
That’s what happened to two Latino families in the Denver suburb of Commerce City in March 2022. Six friends got together one night and snorted what they thought was cocaine: five of them died instantly of fentanyl overdoses. One of them was Karina Rodríguez, the mother of a 4-month-old girl whose father had also overdosed that night and died.
“She didn’t have a drug problem, but she decided to have a little fun one night. And she was poisoned,” Milea, a sister of Karina, testified through tears at a legislative hearing on fentanyl at the Colorado Capitol “Even if she decided to use cocaine that night, she didn’t deserve to die.”
“She was not a person who struggled with addiction,” said her other sister, Feliz. “She said in the weeks before her death that she was the happiest she had ever been.”