King County’s 2023 fentanyl deaths top 1,050, surpassing record – “Drugs have gotten much more lethal, they’ve gotten to be much more available, and we know that they’re much less expensive – and they’re also much more synthetic than ever”

By Sara Jean Green and Lauren Girgis
29 December 2023

(The Seattle Times) – King County has seen over 1,000 fatal fentanyl overdoses in 2023, surpassing a record set last year by an astounding 47%.

Over 1,050 of the county’s nearly 1,300 fatal overdoses this year involved fentanyl, sounding yet another alarm about the potency of the deadly synthetic opioid that’s increasingly arriving in King County in powder and rock form, smuggled over the U.S. border from clandestine drug labs in Mexico.

Meanwhile, half of the county’s overdose deaths this year have involved a combination of fentanyl and methamphetamine, underscoring the extreme danger of using both an opioid and a synthetic stimulant to the body’s central nervous system.

And those are just the deaths that have been confirmed: Another 82 suspected overdose deaths await pending toxicology reports.

“Drugs have gotten much more lethal, they’ve gotten to be much more available, and we know that they’re much less expensive — and they’re also much more synthetic than ever,” said Brad Finegood, a strategic adviser on behavioral health for Public Health – Seattle & King County.

Fatal fentanyl overdoses have skyrocketed in King County over the past four years, with the number of deaths linked to the potent opioid growing by more than 500%.

In 2015, there were just three fentanyl overdose deaths in the entire county. But five years later, the number had jumped to 168 — four fewer than the number of people who died from heroin overdoses. Last year, roughly 715 people died of fentanyl overdoses countywide, a record, before the death toll continued to rise to over 1,050 this year.

That astronomic rise in 2020 served as something of a harbinger for the rapid shift in the local drug supply, from plant-based drugs like heroin and cocaine to highly potent synthetic ones: namely fentanyl and methamphetamine.

Fentanyl’s effects on the community are deep and wide-ranging, disproportionally affecting vulnerable populations such as homeless people, who make up around 1% of King County’s population but are vastly overrepresented in the deadly statistics.

The King County Medical Examiner’s Office classified about a quarter of those who died from all types of overdoses this year as “living in a location not meant for human habitation or emergency shelter,” like encampments, cars and outdoors. About half of the people who died lived in a privately owned or rented home.

While fentanyl deaths continued to skyrocket, fatal overdoses involving methamphetamine also rose this year, with the stimulant involved in 695 deaths as of Thursday, compared with540 for all of 2022. However, the share of deaths caused by a stimulant alone decreased, from 16% to 11% of all overdose deaths.

Using fentanyl and meth together — the first to alleviate physical or emotional pain, the second to stay awake and vigilant all night — depresses then stimulates the body’s central nervous system to the extreme, constantly throwing organ function, heart rate and respiration out of balance until the body eventually gives out.

With far less heroin available on the streets, “when you replace your opioid of choice with a much, much, much more powerful opioid, your body can’t take it any more,” said Finegood.

That’s especially true for people age 45 to 65, who “might [have] chronic comorbidities or other health conditions going on,” he said. With age, “it’s not as easy to use drugs and stay alive.” [more]

King County’s 2023 fentanyl deaths top 1,050, surpassing record