"US Study: Smoking Drugs Linked to Higher Mortality Rate Than Injection"
Originally Published 1 year ago — by ABC News
A new CDC study suggests that smoking has become the most common method of taking drugs in U.S. overdose deaths, surpassing injecting. The study found that the percentage of overdose deaths with evidence of smoking rose 74% while the percentage of deaths with evidence of injection fell 29% between early 2020 and late 2022. Illicit fentanyl, often cut into heroin or other drugs, has been a primary driver of the U.S. overdose epidemic, with smoked fentanyl becoming increasingly common. While some early research suggests that smoking fentanyl may be somewhat less deadly than injecting it, both methods carry a substantial overdose risk.