Now the elderly are becoming opioid addicts

Opioid addiction isn’t just a problem among the young—the over-65s are also becoming addicts.

Fatal overdoses of fentanyl, an opioid painkiller, have risen nine-fold among the over-65s in the last eight years.

Seniors are mixing fentanyl with cocaine and methamphetamine, researchers from the University of Nevada have discovered.

They analysed data from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and discovered that deaths among seniors who had used fentanyl with stimulants had risen from 8.7 percent in 2015 to 49.9 percent in 2023.

Although it’s a worrying new trend, deaths from opioid overdosing were still far higher among younger people.  Fentanyl-stimulant deaths rose from 21.3 percent (1,812 of 8,513) to 59.3 percent (38,333 of 64,694) over the same period, which represents a 2,115 percent increase.

Overall, there were fentanyl-related 404,964 deaths in the US between 1999 and 2023, and, of these, 17,040 involved adults 65 and older, while 387,924 were among adults aged 25 to 64.

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