The current American homelessness epidemic is being driven by fentanyl and a harsher kind of meth. Let’s see What are Methamphetamine and Fentanyl drugs and how it makes American homeless in detail.
Meth with Fentanyl: A Lethal Combination
Meth (meth) and fentanyl are both hazardous substances that can result in an overdose when taken alone. But when all of those risks are included, a potentially much deadlier scenario results.
Methamphetamine and Fentanyl drugs are two often abused substances. Meth is an abbreviation for methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can cause dependence.
Misuse of meth activates the central nervous system, which swiftly rewires the brain and causes addiction. An opiate that is 50 times more potent than heroin is fentanyl. All it takes to overdose on fentanyl is a very small amount.
Due to how simple it is to combine fentanyl with meth to provide a cheap high with a possibly fatal cost, you don’t even need to intentionally take fentanyl to feel the effects of the meth-fentanyl combination.
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The Opioid Crisis and Fentanyl
In the United States, synthetic or lab-produced opioids like fentanyl have been a prominent cause of opioid overdose deaths. More than 56,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2020 came from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, accounting for more than 82% of all opioid overdose deaths.
The majority of this fentanyl is thought to be produced illegally by narcotics traffickers. The majority of states saw an increase in overdose deaths caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl between 2019 and 2020. This includes Ohio, where there was a spike in synthetic opioid fatalities of more than 30% throughout that period.
Methamphetamine and Fentanyl drugs: Risks of this deadly Combination
Combining these medications is exceedingly risky and usually fatal due to their antagonistic effects on the body, particularly the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Methamphetamine acts as a stimulant, delaying the full effects of fentanyl and frequently persuading the user that they haven’t taken a fatal dose of the potent opioid. The user’s decision to consume more is supported by this.
Speed balling is the term for the use of both a depressive (fentanyl) and a stimulant (meth). To acquire the enjoyable effects of both drugs while avoiding their negative consequences, speed balling combines the two antagonistic substances. The bad side effects are only temporarily delayed because methamphetamine’s effects disappear considerably faster than fentanyl’s.
Respiratory depression sets in once methamphetamine’s energizing effects are gone. Due to this delayed physical response, speed balling frequently results in overdose fatalities. According to the graph below, the risk of death among users of psychostimulants is rising, and opioids significantly exacerbate the already high risk.
How the drugs makes American homeless?
The homeless issue in America is being fueled by a stronger and more lethal form of methamphetamine and fentanyl, whose users swiftly develop mental illnesses and addictions that make it impossible for them to operate in society.
Sam Quinones, who wrote about the opioid crisis in books like Dreamland and The Least of Us, said in an interview with the Intelligencer last week that “these two drugs come in such enormous quantities and have such staggering potency that they do the job far more masterfully than drugs have done it before.” So, methamphetamine is making individuals homeless and causing them to become confused, illogical, delusional, and paranoid.
Sam Quinones is a journalist from Los Angeles, California. He is well recognized for his reporting from Mexico and on Mexican Americans. Also, for capturing the American opioid crisis in his 2015 book Dreamland and his book The Least of Us in 2021. He has 35 years of experience as a reporter. Now he is a freelance journalist From 2004 through 2014, he worked as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times.
“Homeless individuals increased”
Quinones’ remarks come at a time when the number of homeless people in America has increased recently. The National Alliance to End Homelessness calculated that by 2022, the number of homeless people in the nation will have decreased from a high of over 647,000 in 2007 to just under 550,000 in 2016.
Since then, the number of people who are homeless has increased significantly, reaching over 580,000 by 2020, the most recent year for which the organization has complete statistics.
There are signs that the issue has become worse, with shelters throughout the country reporting a triple of their clientele in the past year and news stories dominating headlines about massive homeless encampments forming in major cities from coast to coast.
Many factors have been blamed for the resurgence of the crisis, with many Americans now struggling under the weight of skyrocketing prices after being left behind by an economy struggling to recover from pandemic restrictions.
Methamphetamine and Fentanyl drugs “Dangerous Narcotics”
Quinones, however, cites dangerous narcotics as a key cause of the problem, stating that new meth strains have had a crippling effect on people throughout the nation, driving them into the streets where they lead a life centered around getting their next high.
The author claimed that fentanyl and meth “do such a masterful job in potency and in the supply of keeping, of thwarting that instinct to self-preservation” that people will “literally refuse treatment, will refuse housing even when they’re living in tent encampments, even when they’re living in feces, in lethal temperatures, beaten, pimped out,”
Because fentanyl is so toxic and may be lethal in even small amounts, it has been the main source of the opioid crisis over the past two years, which has dominated news coverage.
The most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that fentanyl would account for 82.3% of all opioid-related overdose deaths in 2020.
“Drug Addiction”
Meth addicts are more likely to experience gradual health deterioration than accidental overdose death, a condition that has not received as much attention. The substance nevertheless poses a threat to people’s lives.
“People are not killed by it. Additionally, it resembles the unadulterated raw side of addiction: insane individuals wandering the streets and screaming while bare “explained Quinones. “I believe that most individuals would like to avoid having to deal with it.
Sending condolences to a deceased person is simpler than dealing with a crazy person who is wandering the streets.” A new and more harmful meth strain that has swept throughout the nation, increasing rates of mental illness and homelessness in its wake, is making the problem worse.
The “ephedrine method” has reportedly been the main method used for decades to produce the meth that ended up on American streets, according to an article published in the Atlantic last year. Ephedrine, a substance frequently found in decongestants like Sudafed, was a readily available narcotic and the main active component in meth.
But by 2010, a change had occurred as a result of a global crackdown on the ingredient supply. Phenyl-2-propanone, or P2P, is a liquid that drug companies turned to to maintain profit margins. Traffickers found it simpler to use P2P because its components were frequently found in affordable, legal chemicals.
Production of Methamphetamine and Fentanyl drugs
The switch to the P2P approach has its drawbacks because it frequently led to the production of either d-methamphetamine or l-methamphetamine. L-methamphetamine will make the heart race but has little effect on the brain, making it unappealing for drug users. D-methamphetamine, on the other hand, gives consumers the high they want.
Since drug dealers all around Mexico started learning how to produce the more desirable meth, which led to a shift towards the P2P approach, separating the two varieties of meth had previously only been within the grasp of expert, experienced chemists and not the normal drugmaker.
Dealers have benefited greatly from the spread of the new technique since they can now create meth on a previously unheard-of scale using inexpensive, readily available chemicals. The more recent kind spread quickly throughout the country in less than ten years, sickening thousands of Americans with a more hazardous drug than they had previously taken.
Federal Government solving homelessness issues
Although the issue has received increasing attention lately, there are few indications that anything will be done to solve it. Drug traffickers have shifted away from the manufacturing of plant-based drugs, which frequently depended on growing seasons and weather, and instead have boosted the production of substances like meth and fentanyl. Instead, the widespread production of increasingly powerful and addictive medicines is now possible year-round, in any environment.
The federal government, which has the authority to direct foreign diplomacy in contrast to local governments struggling to address their homelessness issues, may be forced to take more action as a result of this reality, according to Quinones.
The kind of national cooperation efforts that must and can occur between Mexico and the United States, according to Quinones, have never been witnessed in the course of the so-called drug war. But I do think that this now calls for a cooperative partnership between the two nations, one that does not skirt around the reality that Mexico has a serious issue with pervasive corruption in its criminal justice system.
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Lavanya (Senior Editor) is a full-time content writer with almost 5 years of experience and a part-time teacher. She joined Medico Topics on the Breaking News trainee scheme in 2022 and now works on MedicoTopics.com. As a lifelong learner, She is constantly curious about learning new things and passionate about sharing knowledge with people through her writing and teaching.