The opioid crisis is not just a white problem: deaths among Hispanics have skyrocketed

Last year, some 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States.

Two-thirds of them were due to fentanyl, an illegally trafficked prescription opioid that is now one of the leading causes of death in the United States for ages 18-49, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diseases (CDC).

The profile of those who die from opioids until now was considered as white people in towns in states such as West Virginia, Ohio or Kentucky.

But now, for the first time, blacks and Native Americans are dying more than whites, and while still in smaller numbers (except for Puerto Ricans), deaths among Hispanics have skyrocketed in recent years, nearly tripling since 2011

“Hispanics still in general, except Puerto Ricans, have lower rates, but you see that they are increasing, so it is really worrying,” Magdalena Cerdá, professor and director of the Center for Epidemiology and Opioid Policy at the University of Puerto Rico, told Noticias Telemundo. from New York. 

The body of a man in his 50s was found along Mission Beach in San Diego, California on Saturday, November 12, 2022. San Diego Police Lt. Ken Impellizeri and officers believe it was a fatal overdose. of fentanyl after examining the scene.Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Why are minority people dying more?

How did we get here?

To understand it, you first have to understand how the opioid epidemic has transformed over the years.

White Coat Drug Dealers and Prescription Opioids for Pain

The crisis began in 1996 with

, the opioid painkiller created by

with which the pharmaceutical giant made billions of dollars and became the best-selling drug in history. 

After 10 years, tens of thousands of deaths, and hundreds of lawsuits and investigations, Purdue "pleaded guilty to mislabeling OxyContin with intent to defraud or deceive": Federal investigations found that their marketing tactics made 

 The drugmaker paid a fine for a minuscule fraction ($643 million) of her earnings, and was forced by the government to change her behavior and reformulate OxyContin to make it less addictive. 

It was 2007, and the crisis was just beginning.

Purdue Pharma takes the blame for the opioid crisis in the United States

Oct 21, 202000:31

It was then that dozens of prescription opioid companies saw an opportunity to fill the void left by Purdue as ringleader and flood the market with millions of new pills.

Cities, counties, towns and tribal nations sued them en masse: 4,000 lawsuits against a score of companies.

They changed their behavior and it became increasingly difficult to get prescription opioids on the streets.

This left millions of people with severe addictions, without a supply to supply them, and without access to treatment. 

First, Chinese criminal gangs saw an opportunity to supply that addiction by manufacturing and smuggling into the United States

, another prescription opioid pain reliever, according to DEA data.

Left: An evidence bag of fentanyl disguised as oxycodone at the Fresno County Sheriff's Office, August 2020. Right: A photo of Jackson Laughinghouse in his mother's bed, Greenville, North Carolina, July 2022. Jackson died of an opioid overdose in 2013. Left: Craig Kohlruss/Fresno Bee/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Right: Madeline Gray/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Mexican drug cartels also saw the opportunity and began trafficking heroin, as it is nearly identical on a molecular level to prescription opioids.

It, however, never penetrated the market in the same way as synthetic opioids: it is considered a less pure drug, it must be injected, it is expensive to produce, fields of poppy flowers need to be cultivated, their sap processed, workers paid , and traffic it across the border, which is difficult and risky. 

Then the cartels realized that the Chinese gangs had gotten a much more lucrative business: fentanyl.

What is fentanyl and why does it affect Latinos now?

It seems new, but it is not: Fentanyl was developed in 1959 as a powerful pain reliever, almost identical to heroin but with 50 times more potency, according to the CDC.

There are two types: pharmaceutical and illegally manufactured.

Pharmaceutical fentanyl is still prescribed to treat severe pain, especially after surgery or for advanced cancer.

Fentanyl did what heroin couldn't

because it's much easier, faster, and cheaper to make.

"It can be made by a couple of people in a bathtub in a couple of days," not months, says Scott Higham, a Pulitzer-winning Washington Post reporter and co-author of the book American Cartel: Inside the Battle Against the Car Industry

.

And, very importantly: It's easier to smuggle across the border, making it "the most lucrative drug that cartels have handled in their entire history," says Higham, who has researched the opioid industry since 2016.

Opponents of the sale of illegal drugs on Snapchat protest outside the company's headquarters to call for strict restrictions on the social network, following the fatal fentanyl overdose, Santa Monica, California, June 2022. Ringo Chiu / AFP via Getty Images

China was the largest supplier of fentanyl (and the chemicals with which it is manufactured) until 2020, according to the DEA, since in 2019 the Chinese government approved laws to control it and it was there that the Sinaloa and Jalisco Nueva Generación cartels filled that role.

Now, fentanyl is by far the most trafficked and deadly drug, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

according to what they told him

officials at the border told The Washington Post in January.

[Drug overdose deaths are at an all-time high, and the coronavirus pandemic isn't just to blame]

“The most recent CBP [Customs and Border Protection] numbers on fentanyl seizures showed a 53% month-over-month increase, and that amounted to 3,000 pounds of fentanyl at the border in November alone,” the officer told him in January. Secretary of National Security Alejandro Mayorkas to The Washington Post.

and it's more than CBP was detecting over the course of an entire year just a few years ago," the secretary added.

Deaths have also increased dramatically when this substance is mixed with other drugs, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, which are more commonly used among Hispanics than heroin or prescription opioids, explains Cerdá, the NYU researcher.

Between 2007 and 2019,

and mixed with methamphetamine, they have grown

It's not clear if this mixing happens on purpose or by accident, says Cerdá, but it is believed that both are happening.

Fentanyl is highly addictive, so some dealers may be mixing it with other drugs to make their clients more dependent.

On the other hand, there are those who do consume fentanyl consciously because they have developed a tolerance to opioids and need higher and higher doses, adds the researcher.

"There is a lot of product from all drugs at the moment, except for cannabis, which is contaminated with fentanyl," warns Cerdá.

The coronavirus pandemic made it worse, especially for Hispanics

The opioid crisis took an even deadlier turn in 2020 with the COVID-19 pandemic, when overdose deaths skyrocketed, and Latinos found themselves hard hit and without support.

[“We are the ones who die”: the pandemic triggers opioid overdoses and Latinos are the most vulnerable]

The confinement, depression and financial stress brought about by this health crisis exacerbated the use of opioids, and

Overdose deaths increased by a historic 17% nationwide, according to a CDC report: more than 81,000 deaths occurred from this cause in the 12 months ending May 2020.

It was the 

 and

one of the factors that led to a reduction in life expectancy in the country by an entire year, something that had not happened so dramatically since World War II. 

Prosecutor Garland points to two Mexican cartels as responsible for fentanyl trafficking

March 2, 202302:03

"Faith" vs. "evidence"

This was even more serious for Latinos, since language barriers and immigration status make it more difficult to get help in rehabilitation centers that can offer them support.

In addition, cultural and religious barriers can complicate the situation.

Among the Latino community, it is more common to find religious rehab centers, what researchers call "faith-based treatment" versus "evidence-based treatment," explains Cerdá.

[Authorities Investigate Accidental Overdose of 10-Month-Old Baby with Fentanyl in San Francisco]

These approaches emphasize prayer and willpower as tools to combat addiction, rather than using drugs like naloxone, a much less potent and addictive opioid that is proven in multiple studies and data to help the addicted person quit. substance little by little, more safely and with fewer relapses.

The lack of evidence-based rehabilitation centers is one of the reasons why for Boricuas, particularly those who live on the island, the epidemic has always been of the utmost urgency.

This group has

, researchers including Manuel Cano of the University of Texas at San Antonio and Camila Gelpí-Acosta of the City University of New York (CUNY) have found.

Age-standardized drug overdose death rates for US Latino, white, and non-Hispanic black populations by year. Manuel Cano and Camila Gelpí-Acosta

"Drug overdose death rates in the Puerto Rican group were higher than in any other group of Latino descent or the non-Hispanic black population" from 2015 to 2019, "while exceeding the rate in the non-Hispanic white population from

they wrote in a study published in April 2022.

It is no longer just the towns: the epidemic reaches the cities

While Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the rural population, they make up only 8.6% of rural areas but 19.8% of urban areas, according to data from the Department of Agriculture.

And minorities like Latinos and blacks have also been more affected recently by opioids because a higher proportion of them live in cities like New York, Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles, and that's where fentanyl has penetrated the most, as either alone or mixed with other drugs, according to Higham, a reporter for The Washington Post.

This is what happened to two Hispanic families in Commerce City, just outside of Denver, Colorado in March 2022. Six friends got together to hang out, did what they thought was cocaine, and five of them died instantly from a overdose of what was actually fentanyl.

Feliz Sánchez-García and Mileiah Rodríguez are pictured with their mother Debby García as they hold a photo of their overdose victim daughter Karina Rodríguez outside their home in Denver, Colo., September 29, 2022.Salwan Georges/The Washington Post / via Getty Im

“She didn't have a drug problem, but she decided to have a little fun one night.

And she was poisoned.

She, even if she had decided to use cocaine that night, she didn't deserve to die.

She was murdered,” a sister of Karina Rodriguez, one of those who died, testified tearfully in April at the Colorado Capitol in Denver, to advocate for legislation that would make the distribution of the deadly fentanyl a crime in Colorado.

At least 23 states have passed similar legislation, thereby increasing penalties for dealers whose drugs kill users.

“She was not fighting addiction,” added Feliz, her other sister.

"In the weeks before she died she said that she was happier than ever."