A study by UCSF researchers has found that the increase in smoking fentanyl, now more common than injecting, carries heightened overdose risks due to residue left in smoking equipment. Credit: SciTechDaily.com As smoking fentanyl becomes more common than injection, users face mounting dangers from the residue in smoking equipment.
Now that smoking has overtaken injecting as the most common method for consuming fentanyl, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have uncovered an increased risk of fatal overdose from the residue that accumulates in smoking equipment. The researchers discovered that people both shared fentanyl resin and consumed it accidentally, potentially increasing overdose risks. This is particularly concerning for individuals who use the equipment to smoke other drugs, like methamphetamine, and have not developed tolerance to opioids like fentanyl.
“The risk of overdose when sharing smoking devices with fentanyl resin could be seen as analogous to the risk of shared injection paraphernalia and HIV transmission,” said Daniel Ciccarone, MD, MPH, Justine Miner Professor of Addiction Medicine at UC San Francisco in the Department of Family & Community Medicine, who is the first author of the paper. “Harm reduction-based and culturally attuned education campaigns need to be rapidly advanced to address this new risk.” The paper, published today (May 22, 2024) in the scientific journal PLOS ONE , is the first to explore fentanyl re.
