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TOTALLY DOPEY

Cops ordered to do nothing as junkies shoot up in streets

By CONOR SKELDING

New York City has surrendered in the war on drugs. Despite new federal data showing overdose deaths in NYC have skyrocketed 36 percent, Albany pols passed a law Oct. 7 decriminalizing possession of drug needles. This prompted the already hands-off NYPD to officially order cops to do nothing when they see addicts with syringes in public.

New York City drug-overdose deaths have surged by 36 percent, new federal stats show.

A reported 2,243 people died from drug overdoses in the city during the 12-month period ending March 31, compared with 1,653 who died in the same period the year before, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

And that’s an undercount, the CDC noted, “due to incomplete data.”

The vast majority of the deaths were from opioids and synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, said Dr. Silvia Martins, director of the Substance Use Epidemiology Unit of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

“Overall, we were expecting that [overdose deaths] would increase,” she said, due to economic and general stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic — plus a “disruption” in addiction treatment.

A total of 1,853 people died from opioid overdoses during the 12month period, a 45 percent increase from the same period in 2020. That category counted natural and synthetic opioids including oxycodone, fentanyl and methadone.

Cocaine and heroin also claimed more lives, with 908 dying from cocaine, up 35 percent, and 800 dying of heroin overdoses, up 15 percent.

Psychostimulants — a category that includes methamphetamine, ecstasy and ADHD drugs — killed 141, up 52 percent.

The total number of overdose deaths is less than the sum of the individual drug categories because some deaths are attributed to a combination of drugs.

Overdose deaths are up 31 percent nationwide, with 96,779 deaths for the same 12-month period.

The rest of New York state saw 2,950 OD deaths, 31 percent more than the year before.

A representative for the city Health Department said that while the agency was “still researching the increase in overdose deaths in 2020, a national increase of fentanyl in the drug supply, along with pandemic-related stressors, are most likely the causes.”

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2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-17T07:00:00.0000000Z

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