Citation

Nisi S. Indiana journal of law and social equality 2023; 11(2): 244-265.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Indiana University, Mauer School of Law)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

Drug overdose fatalities in the United States increased by almost thirty percent during the twelve-month period ending April 2021.1 The marked increase is the first time the United States exceeded 100,000 overdose deaths in one year, a doubling since 2015.2 According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), this trend holds steady in the state of Indiana, where 2,663 overdose deaths were reported during the twelve-month period ending September 2021.3 In the same twelve-month period from 2020, Indiana recorded 2,160 deaths due to overdose.4 Indiana's inadequate Syringe Service Program (SSP) law has done little to address the additional 503 preventable deaths from the previous year.

These numbers are even more staggering when we look to the past. Indiana reported the overdose-death toll was 1,210 in the twelve-month period ending in September 2015.5 The majority of these deaths are attributed to the presence of synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, adulterating common street drugs like heroin to increase potency and dependency. Fentanyl, a drug 100 times as powerful as morphine, fuels the run-away death toll of the opioid overdose epidemic in the United States.6 However, fentanyl is easily detected with test strip kits and the fatal effects can be reversed by the lifesaving drug naloxone.

Language: en