Overdose Deaths Are Finally Starting to Decline. Here's Why

> Additionally, the availability of test strips for detecting fentanyl, as well as other types of drug testing equipment, Cerda says, may have also prevented overdose deaths

Not sure that this is necessarily to do with it. Fent tests have been around and widely available since 2015 or so. It's been testable via normal reagent testing since forever. A large amount of these overdose deaths have been the most destitute of society, a demographic that tends to never practice any degree of harm reduction.

I spent some time getting to know "average" "street users" and it was genuinely astonishing how different of a world it was, compared to the type of drug users I usually rubbed shoulders with. No harm reduction practices, very little knowledge, wild misconceptions, and the absolute state of the "street" market was horrendous. People used to putting crap that's been stepped on 15 different times in their body and paying out the ass for the privilege. 7/10 of every titration I ran on street sourced drugs was grim. I once tried to explain volumetric titration to a street-user in colloquial terms and he thought it was a fairy tale. This is not a world of test strips, weighing, sanitation, basic neurochemistry, etc. It's a world of the most predatory, exploitative, anti-consumer marketplaces taking advantage of people who don't know any better. People who are kept in the dark by poor education and misinformation through legend and sometimes even government institutions. The worse off the person is, the more ignorant they tend to be.

In the wake of the fent/carfent proliferation, you've seen a small number of this segment adopt harm reduction practices. But the overwhelming majority are still recklessly freeballing it. To them, it's the nature of the game.

Please remember to test your drugs. And always measure your doses. Jewelry scales are cheap.