There has been a significant drop in overdoses in Ohio is it due to the cartel, stopping the selling of fentanyl?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Is the war on cartels actually working well? The overdose
deaths in Ohio fell to an eight year low in January,
giving some the idea that maybe, after years of a
brutal opioid epidemic, maybe there's improvement, and the improvement could
be a battle against the drug cartel. Some credit statewide

(00:26):
drug treatments and outreach efforts, but for eight years now
they're getting it. Maybe. Some point to a decline in
fetanyl contamination of other drugs, and others argue it's the
drug cartels maybe making good on a promise to cut
fetnyl production due to the NEIL the current Trump administration.

(00:47):
Regardless of the reason, those who have worked for years
to reduce overdose deaths say the trend is good news,
but they know they want to know really why. The
latest overdose estimates are based on Ohio Department of Health
Harm Reduction Ohio focuses on public education and outreach to
people who used drugs. Suspects the reason dropping overdose desks

(01:10):
has more to do with the supply side coming from
the cartel. So the president of this group noted that
the downturn in deaths coincided with the Sinaloa cartel's claim
that it was banning fetanyl last year. The Sinaloa Cartel's
power over fetanyl distribution is undeniable. It was led by

(01:33):
the now in prison hel Chopo. It was the first
cartel to enter the fetanyl business. Actually, but last year,
for reasons that remained unclear, I think we all know why,
leaders of the cartel claimed they had stopped manufacturing and
manufacturing and shipping fetanyl. Of course, law enforcement officials remained skeptical.
Others doubt that the cartels claim that a banned production

(01:56):
would reduce overdoses justin Ohio. Public health data showing overdose
deaths rose in other states on the West Coast even
as they fell in Ohio. So again, are they only
targeting Ohio? There was if one branch of the Cinalota
target maybe stopping supplying fetanyl in that area. If there's
going to be a demand, it's going to be met.

(02:18):
So if Coca Cola decides to get out of making
Coca cola, it doesn't mean that people suddenly don't want
Coca Cola. It means they're going to buy pepsi instead.
The ADA says that the ban public relations stunt by
the cartel, or an effort to merge fetanyl production among
a smaller group of manufacturers and penalize others. A professor

(02:39):
of population health at New York University who researches feedinah
agreed that the cartel will be driven by profit incentives.
He skeptical of the cartael has done anything significant to
impact overdose deaths. His research actually found that nationally, the
number of fetanyl pills seized by authorities increased in the
last seven years and exploded two years ago. The decline

(03:00):
i IO decreased to an estimated rate of eight point
seven ohiolands per day. Some argue maybe it's a problem
with the data. One said that the overall the overdose
desks actually fell by a third in one night, so
may have nothing to do with it. It may mostly might

(03:22):
be just the data collection as well. Could be a
combination of things. Maybe it is the harm reduction plan.
Maybe it's better education. Maybe it's demand is going down
and they're switching from fetanol. Maybe a lot of people
have learned how dangerous it is. At the end of
the day, nobody really knows, but we do know that

(03:44):
fetanyl tainted al cocaine felt to about ten to twelve
percent in the three month period ending in June, compared
to twenty percent last year. This is in Ohio to
share as xanax tainted with fetanol dropped ten percent from
two percent last year here, so it could be a reduction,
could be, education, could be data, could be all the above.

(04:09):
Who knows