Fentanyl Linked To 80% Of Queens Overdose Deaths: Tracker

QUEENS, NY — Fentanyl caused 80 percent of fatal overdoses in Queens last year as the synthetic opioid's deadly toll only grew in the city, according to a tracker based on federal health data.

Queens saw 501 people die of overdoses last year, a rate of 22 people for every 100,000 borough residents, a data visualization by the San Francisco Chronicle shows.

The tally, though grim and a significant jump from 2018's rate, still stood as the lowest in New York City.

The Bronx had 909 overdose deaths last year, a rate of nearly 66 per 100,000 residents — one of the highest in a populous county, the tracker shows.

"Even in the era of COVID-19, the opioid crisis stands out as one of the most devastating public health disasters of the 21st century in the USA and Canada," a study published in The Lancet last year states.

The Lancet study found the North American opioid crisis was driven by insufficient regulation of the pharmaceutical and health care industries, enabling a "profit-driven quadrupling of opioid prescribing" for a broad range of chronic, non-cancer pain conditions.

Hundreds of thousands of people fatally overdosed on prescription opioids and millions more became addicted as a result, the researchers found. And heroin markets have since became saturated with synthetics, including the more deadly and cheaper fentanyl.

Fentanyl accounted for 47 percent of overdose deaths in Queens during 2018, the San Francisco Chronicle's tracker states.

That same year, its overdose death rate was nearly 11 for every 100,000 residents, the tracker shows.

By last year, fentanyl was linked to 80 percent of Queens overdose deaths — a higher share than the 68 percent national average, according to the tracker.

Take a look at the tracker here.