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Musician Prince performs his first of three shows onstage during "One Night... Three Venues." …
Liz Szabo, USA TODAY The Drug Enforcement Agency last year issued a nationwide alert about fentanyl because of a dramatic surge in overdose deaths caused by fentanyl-laced heroin. Fentanyl is the most potent opioid available.
"Fentanyl is a very dangerous opioid, whether you’re taking it as a prescription or you’re mixing it with black-market heroin," said addiction specialist Andrew Kolodny, executive director of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.
“Celebrity overdoses are just the tip of the iceberg of an epidemic,” Kolodny said. "Many of these deaths are occurring in people who are not your typical drug abuser. They are suffering from chronic pain and they are becoming addicted to legitimately prescribed medication.”
Middle-aged adults have some of the highest rates of prescription drug addiction, partly because of injuries or age-related diseases that leave them in pain, Kolodny said. Prince was 57.
More than 28,000 people died from overdose deaths a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are responsible for the largest increase in overdose deaths from 2013 to 2014, when the rate climbed from 1 death per 100,000 people to 1.8, according to the CDC.
In the past, people abused fentanyl by diverting it from hospitals. Recently, however, drug dealers began manufacturing fentanyl in illegal labs. Toxicology tests used by coroners and medical examiners are unable to distinguish between prescription and illicit fentanyl, the CDC reports.
Five jurisdictions — Florida, Maryland, Maine, Ohio, and Philadelphia — have reported sharp increases in illicit fentanyl seizures, according to the CDC.
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