H漫画

鈥淓arly Evidence of the Effects of Xylazine-Adulterated Fentanyl in Ohio,鈥� Daniel Rosenblum, George Karandinos, Jay Unick, Dennis Cauchon, and Daniel Ciccarone, International Journal of Drug Policy, 2025.

Professor Daniel Rosenblum鈥檚 research on drug use draws from economics, epidemiology, and public health to examine how changes in the illicit drug supply, market structures, and policy environments contribute to overdose risk. For example, he and collaborators have used crime鈥恖ab data from Ohio to track rapid shifts in the composition of seized drugs鈥攅specially rising synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogs鈥攁nd showed how these shifts strongly correlate with increases in overdose fatalities, suggesting that monitoring seizure data can serve as an early鈥恮arning system. In another recent study, Rosenblum and his co-authors analyze the role of methamphetamine supply in Ohio, finding that in more populous counties, a higher relative presence of methamphetamine is associated with a decrease in overdose death rates, possibly indicating substitution away from more lethal synthetic opioids under certain conditions. He has also explored how past major supply shocks鈥攍ike the introduction of Colombian鈥恠ource heroin in the U.S.鈥攁ltered heroin market purity, price, and origin, and how those alterations increased overdose admissions. Most recently, Rosenblum鈥檚 coauthored paper, 鈥淓arly evidence of the effects of xylazine-adulterated fentanyl in Ohio,鈥� estimates the relationship between xylazine prevalence and overdose death in Ohio, a state with a high overdose death rate. Xylazine, a non-opioid sedative, is an adulterant found in fentanyl that has been spreading across the US and becoming more common in Canada. Xylazine is a veterinary tranquilizer not intended for human use and causes severe wounds in addition to intensifying and prolonging the sedative effects of fentanyl. The article shows that xylazine adulteration is likely leading to hundreds of more overdose deaths a year in Ohio.