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In Philadelphia, fatal overdoses are the No. 3 cause of death after heart disease and cancer. That’s been the case each year since 2016, except in 2020 and 2021 when COVID-19 deaths outpaced overdose deaths. The vast majority of fatal overdoses in Philly involve the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Data on overdose deaths in Philly in 2024 is not yet available. However, new research shows that drug deaths are dropping in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
As much as half of the fentanyl sold on Philly’s streets contains an industrial chemical used in plastics manufacturing. That’s according to our November 2024 testing of fentanyl samples collected in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, regarded as the largest open-air drug market on the East Coast. What’s more, the amount, or concentration, of this industrial chemical in the drug samples often exceeded the amount of fentanyl.
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