The death rate among drug addicts in Seattle continues to rise. Since the beginning of the year alone, several dozen people have died in the city from an overdose of prohibited substances.
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS
According to the US media, in some cities in the country, in particular in Seattle, there are not enough places in the morgues for those who died of a fentanyl overdose. In this regard, local authorities are considering the possibility of storing bodies not in special cells, but on stretchers.
Seattle police confirmed that the death rate among drug addicts continues to rise. Since the beginning of the year alone, several dozen people have already died in the city from an overdose of prohibited substances.
Faisal Khan, head of the district’s public health department, said final figures were not yet known, but he estimated that at least three times as many people died from fentanyl last year as two to three years ago.
Fentanyl is a synthetic analogue of heroin often used in field and disaster medicine.
In the United States, the drug comes illegally for the most part from Mexico, since it is a very profitable product for the drug cartels.
The DEA intercepted more than 50 million fentanyl tablets last year, but the agency believes the amount of the drug that managed to leak into the country is many times greater than the intercepted shipments.