Dusseldorf.
There are more and more drug-related deaths in NRW, and the number has more than tripled in just a few years. Experts see several reasons for this.
The number of drug-related deaths in North Rhine-Westphalia has gradually more than tripled within a few years – to almost 700 in 2021. For comparison: 425 people died in traffic accidents in NRW in the same year. Nationwide, the number of drug-related deaths in 2021 would even have declined if North Rhine-Westphalia is excluded.
The fact that there was still a significant increase is due to North Rhine-Westphalia with 292 additional drug-related deaths in just one year. But what is the cause? Experts bring a number of factors into play, but also admit: “It’s not really clear.”
“No more of the 19-year-olds in the station toilet”
In recent years, 80 percent of the increase in deaths in NRW can be traced back to the group of drug addicts who die from the long-term damage of their consumption. “The average drug-related death is currently over 40 years old,” says Prof. Norbert Scherbaum, Clinic Director for Psychiatry at the LVR University Hospital in Essen. Because of the better offers of help, the addicts have gotten older. “It’s no longer about the 19-year-old in the station toilet.”
The long-term addicts would often not die from an overdose, but from lung cancer or cirrhosis of the liver. “In substitution treatment, we look after people who have been addicted for 40 years and are now 60 years old,” says Scherbaum.
Gaps in data and knowledge make evaluation difficult
“Autopsies and toxicological blood analyzes only take place in some of the deaths,” says Scherbaum. “What drives us is mixed consumption,” adds Prof. Heino Stöver (University of Frankfurt). Upon withdrawal, addicts quickly turn to other drugs, which subsequently makes it difficult to determine which was fatal.
Is there an opioid crisis like in the US?
The experts unanimously do not see an opioid crisis like that in the USA caused by synthetic opiates such as fentanyl. Most recently, 107,000 people died there in one year from drugs. “Of course, a fentanyl wave would be highly dangerous. However, this does not appear to be a widespread phenomenon. Two or three years ago we gave urine samples to a special laboratory,” says Scherbaum. The result was a very small number of fentanyl proofs, which roughly corresponded to the self-declaration of the addicts.
Researchers have been investigating again since December whether anything has changed. “We won’t have anything like the US. The doctors are far too alarmed for that,” addiction researcher Stöver is certain.
Also read:Energy-intensive and life-threatening: the drug market in NRW
Corona pandemic was a big problem for addicts
Closed contact points, offers of help on the back burner: All experts confirm that the corona pandemic was a big problem for addicts. The isolation may have prevented rapid help in many cases. Suicides among addicts also doubled during the pandemic.
“The loneliness was a problem and the virus itself was of course also a problem for the addicts who were weak in health,” says Caritas addiction expert Angelika Schels-Bernhards. “What was scandalous was that the addicts’ contact shops were classified as catering establishments and closed. People were literally left out on the street.” Were other federal states more liberal?
Crack and Freebase have arrived in breadth
More crack is being smoked in drug consumption rooms in North Rhine-Westphalia, reports Dorothee Mücken from the NRW Addiction Cooperation. Crack and its Freebase variant have “been on the broad side and are no longer limited to individual scenes,” says Markus Lahrmann from Caritas NRW. The increase of 25 deaths in this area, while huge at 132 percent in one year, accounts for less than a tenth of the total increase for 2021.
Also read:Drug deaths in Mülheim: Parents criticize the city and the police
Increase in drug-related deaths in all areas
The situation picture of the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia shows an increase in drug-related deaths for 2021 in all areas. The rates of increase vary between 51 percent for unknown poisonings and 400 percent for accidents involving illegal drugs. For opiates and opioids, the increase is over 200 percent.
Remedy by using a nasal spray
The majority of addicts still die from opiates such as heroin or synthetic opioids. The experts expect a positive effect from the more frequent use of a nasal spray with naloxane, which resolves respiratory paralysis very quickly in the event of an overdose. Because the addicts are abruptly brought back to reality at the same time, one should not expect gratitude when using it, reports Stöver: “People tend to be annoyed. Their lives were saved, but they missed the shot.” (dpa)
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