"The 2010s are proving to be a banner decade for unintended consequences in America's war on drugs.
By now, readers are likely familiar with the policies that bolstered the markets for heroin and then illicit fentanyl:
Law enforcement cracked down on doctors who prescribed large amount of painkillers, pharmacists were required to report opioid prescriptions to government databases, and regulators asked the pharmaceutical industry to make pills harder to manipulate.
Unable to access snortable or injectable pills, users turned to the black market.
As a result, prescription overdose deaths have declined in many states, but fentanyl- and heroin-related overdose deaths have skyrocketed.
The New York Times reports that two other substances are also having a moment.
Neither drug really went away—only Quaaludes have ever done that—but they are cheaper and more plentiful than they have been in years, thanks to supply reduction policies enacted by the United States and its allies.
The Times tells us, for example, that a
The Times tells us, for example, that a
study by RAND found that cocaine consumption fell 50 percent between 2006 and 2010. But in the past few years, the cocaine supply from Colombia has climbed to a record high in part because of a peace settlement that includes payments to farmers who stop growing coca. To be in a position to qualify for those payments in the future, many farmers started growing it. As a result...cocaine prices have fallen, leading to an increase in cocaine use in the United States and some European countries.
The Economist says farmers in Colombia knew for years before the peace settlement was completed that the government would eventually pay them to stop growing coca, which is a very good reason to not grow anything else until the checks start coming in.
Stateside, cocaine is cheap and, in many places, contaminated. Last week, Harm Reduction Ohio reported that cocaine samples across the state tested positive for illicit fentanyl and its analogs, meaning cocaine users with no opioid preference (or tolerance) are playing Russian roulette every time they put schnozz to mirror.
People who intentionally mix heroin and cocaine, meanwhile, are increasingly likely to shoot those two plus fentanyl.
People who intentionally mix heroin and cocaine, meanwhile, are increasingly likely to shoot those two plus fentanyl.
The result is more dead cocaine users.
Back in December, the pseudonymous blogger Jubal Harshaw emailed me with some data from the Centers for Disease Control showing that cocaine overdose deaths involving fentanyl had increased from 23 percent of cocaine deaths in 2015 to 40 percent in 2016.
In Maryland, the number of opioid-cocaine deaths has increased dramatically:
In Maryland, the number of opioid-cocaine deaths has increased dramatically:
Graph courtesy of Maryland Department of Public Health
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