RECENT STATS REVEAL HISTORIC OPIOID SURGE
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RECENT STATS REVEAL HISTORIC OPIOID SURGE
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We have wanted to bring the ongoing opioid crisis to your attention for months. Pastor Rob McCoy mentioned the problem on Pray for America’s Leaders and so we started digging. This is an excerpt from a very recent article in the Washington Post that highlights the staggering opioid death numbers in the greater D.C. area. Similar rises have occurred across the country. Covid pushed fentanyl and opioids out of the news while it actually grew as a problem. Please join us in praying about this terrible crisis.
Mary’s Center, a community health center with locations in D.C. and Maryland, started its addiction services program in 2015, offering medication-assisted treatment, naloxone training, counseling and a weekly recovery support group. Over the next five years, just four of their 600 patients overdosed and died. But that figure more than doubled in 2020, to 10 fatalities, a change the clinic attributes to the challenges of isolating during the coronavirus pandemic and the still-growing prevalence of the deadly synthetic fentanyl. . . .
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The center’s experience is just a slice of what providers in the D.C. area, and the country at large, saw last year. Fatal opioid overdoses increased 46 percent in the District in 2020, according to city data, despite a pre-pandemic pledge by D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) to cut opioid deaths in half between late 2018 and the fall of last year. Virginia recorded 2020 as its deadliest year ever for opioid-related fatalities, according to preliminary data, with a 47 percent increase compared to 2019. Maryland saw a nearly 19 percent jump in fatal overdoses involving opioids, according to preliminary data, with increases of 54.9 percent in Prince George’s County and 25.6 percent in Montgomery County. . . .
Although nationwide 2020 data won’t be available until later this year, health researchers predict at least a 27 percent jump in fatal overdoses compared to 2019, which would be the largest single-year percentage increase in the past two decades. Experts say a major factor was the pandemic, which left many isolated from treatment as well as family and friends even as jobs dried up and schooling went online. . . .
Federal authorities tried to ensure people had access to opioid-use disorder treatment during pandemic-related lockdowns — waiving some in-person medical evaluations, for example. Health experts, and the American Medical Association, hope those changes stay in place once the public health emergency ends. . . .
D.C. health officials say they are evaluating which changes put in place during the pandemic ought to be permanent, noting the importance of medical check-ins before people can get access to medication-assisted treatment. . . .
There were 411 fatal opioid overdoses in the District in 2020, compared to 281 in 2019, according to an April report from the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. The majority of people dying from drug overdoses were between the ages of 50 and 69, Black and male. Ward 8, the city’s poorest, saw the highest number of overdoses, with 74 in 2020 compared to 59 in 2019.
The data illustrates the failure of a key component of the District’s “Live Long DC” program, launched in late 2018 after a Washington Post investigation found the city was slow to respond to an overdose crisis that primarily affected Black men. In announcing the program, Bowser said the District would use a federal grant and other resources to significantly expand treatment, tracking and education in the hopes of cutting overdose deaths in half within 21 months. . . .
Turnage said data shows the city has had some success — emergency crews and outreach workers successfully used naloxone to reverse more than four out of five overdoses they were called to, for example. But in many other cases, they were never summoned in part because people were less likely to be with others while using opioids during the pandemic. The city distributed more than 43,000 naloxone kits in 2020, Turnage said, compared to about 15,000 in 2019 and just 3,500 in 2018. . . .
In the District, Virginia and Maryland, the impact of the powerful synthetic drug fentanyl continued to increase in 2020. Fentanyl was linked to 94 percent of opioid-related deaths in the District, compared to 91 percent of deaths in 2019. In Virginia, fentanyl was involved in 72.1 percent of all drug overdose deaths, a 71.7 percent increase from 2019; in Maryland, the number of deaths involving fentanyl was 93.1 percent, a 20.7 percent increase. . . .
The number of fatal cocaine overdoses increased by 33 percent in Virginia in 2020, although they are still far outnumbered by deaths attributed to opioids. Fatal overdoses attributed to heroin decreased 6.8 percent from 2019 to 2020, according to the state’s latest report.
In Maryland, the Capital Region, which includes Montgomery, Prince George’s and Frederick counties, reported a 32 percent increase in opioid-related fatalities in 2020 compared to 2019. Prince George’s had the highest growth, with 158 opioid-related fatal overdoses in 2020 compared to 102 in 2019 — an increase of 54.9 percent. Montgomery County saw a 25.6 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths, from 86 to 108.
Opioid-related fatalities increased the most for people over 55 and for Hispanic people in Maryland, according to state data. Baltimore City continued to have the highest number of overdose fatalities in the state — 954 in 2020, up from 851 in 2019. . . .
He said the state’s Racial Disparities in Overdose Task Force “is currently examining the factors influencing the increase in deaths in Prince George’s, Baltimore, and Anne Arundel counties and Baltimore City.”
Share your prayers about the increase in opioid deaths in our nation right now. . .
(Excerpt from The Washington Post. Article by Lola Fadulu. Photo Credit: Canva.)
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And clearly the open border policies of the corrupt Biden admin is fueling the illegal drug trade, human trafficking, and money laundering that has increased 1000-fold in only the first five months of this year! President Trump had a verbal agreement with China that they would cease manufacturing Fentanyl, but lo and behold the current China policy is allowing their effort to destroy our nation to continue unabated. They recognize America as the ONLY deterrent to their global dominance agenda, and the CCP’s efforts include persecuting, torturing, and consigning to ‘death camps’ ALL Christians and other religious groups that resist their Dragon worship.
America and the nations are at a crossroad and precipice at the same time! Either we remove the illegitimate Biden admin and return Trump to his rightful office, and thereby push back against the ‘Global Reset’ of the NWO… or we continue to capitulate to the forces of darkness and will live to regret it all too soon! ARE WE PRAYING STILL?
https://zionsgate.wordpress.com/2007/07/04/praying-for-the-healing-of-america/
While I pray for those addicted to opiods, I want to say the way this is being handled is totally wrong. My new friends and I were disabled for life by a medical product that got through, that should have been stopped. We are in a lot of pain. We are being shamed for needing pain relief. I do not think about it until my pain gets to a 6-7. Doctors are now taking away pain meds from seniors who are suffering with all kinds of medical issues. As the DEA attacked many legal pain centers, the street drugs keep coming. There have been many times now that I have been in intractable pain with no relief because the doctors are afraid if losing their licenses. We cannot be all or nothing thinkers. Yes there is an option epidemic. These people are getting their drugs illegally. The tightening of the medical community has not helped the drug war. I agree with the prayer above, Lord, please show yourself to those trying to escape their emotional pain. Who are given a drug at a party and become hooked. You died for each and everyone of them. Also Lord, please cause sense to prevail when people need relief from physical pain. Give doctors wisdom please. Lord, I pray You would change the minds and hearts of the people in our Country. Draw them to You! You are the only answer to all of this.
Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we ask for complete healing and relief from chronic pain for all who struggle and suffer. We declare that by the stripes of Jesus they heal and are covered by His shed blood 🩸. We ask that as they wait on You, that they are able to find the proper, effective treatment without feeling shame or ridicule. Thank you Father for Your mercy and grace.
Unfortunately, you are correct in your comment. This has hit our disabled veterans very hard. Many of them suffer with uncontrolled pain because the VA took all, or part, of their legitimate pain medications away. These vets cannot find relief for their pain through the VA, and many VA personnel do not even try to help them. They are treated as criminal, “drug seekers” when they try to get help with the VA. Some of these vets turn to the street, or medical (or illegal) marijuana, looking for a way to control their pain. This is very bad. Worse yet, many of our vets take their own lives because they cannot tolerate their pain level. I don’t need to tell anyone that drugs bought on the street is not an option. There is no control over dosage, and many of these drugs are cut with fentanyl: an overdose just waiting to happen. To make matters worse, some vets are selling their pain meds. This makes it very difficult for the vets that need that medication. It breaks my heart to see so many suffer after they served this country with honor. I pray for healing for everyone with chronic pain, and for everyone abusing any drug. The VA has lost many doctors in the last few years. Our veterans deserve better care. I wish there was something non-narcotic that they could use to manage their pain, but for many there is nothing else that works. Please pray that our government will wake-up to the problems they created in order to reduce overdoses. The governments actions have made the problem much worse, as this article demonstrates. Our vets need proper medical care administered by a medical doctor, not political edict.
Please, Abba, keeps these servants in Your care and give wisdom to the people making these decisions. Please, Abba help our vets get the care they need and protect them from addiction. Thank You for Your love, in Christ’s Name!
Oh Father! Only you can fill the hole in our souls that cry out in pain. Lord, you are the ONLY answer as I well know; the only One who satisfies. God, I ask you to surround those who are in pain with power people of God, to speak truth into their lives, give them hope & a direction to your Light. Please protect them with your ministering angels as you did for me, and let them crave Your Presence, even if they don’t think you exist. You are our Miracle Working, Almighty God! And please dry up the supply of Fentanyl that’s brewed in hell! In Yeshua’s merciful name.
Father, This problem has deep roots of evil. In the mighty name of Jesus, expose every cartel, drug lord, dealer, and person who is involved and profiting from drug trafficking. Expose the corruption within our systems. Bring due justice. Destroy this dark and destructive world. Protect and give our youth the courage and wisdom to resist any temptation to be lured into drug abuse. Deliver those who have already been entrapped. Minister healing to families and friends who are suffering loss. In the name of Jesus we bind the spirits of addiction and death. We speak life and freedom over our youth all who have fallen victim. You are mighty to save. Thank you, Lord.