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All four were also among the states with the most deaths caused by the synthetic opioid since 2015, the non-profit Families Against Fentanyl found.
The results led a former chief medical officer of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to urge Washington to "attack fentanyl overdoses with the same vigor and approaches as we do the coronavirus."
Bipartisan leaders including former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former CIA Director John Brennan have already urged President Biden to designate illicit fentanyl and its analogs as weapons of mass destruction. More than 25,000 Americans have also signed an FAF petition (see below).
“It is heartbreaking to treat babies who overdosed or people who had no idea their pills or powder was contaminated with a deadly poison,” said Dr. Roneet Lev, the former national drug control leader. "As an emergency physician I do my best, but sadly we are not always successful.
"Treating fentanyl overdoses is an attempt to bring someone back from the dead."
Fentanyl deaths nationwide have doubled over the past two years, the Families Against Fentanyl study found. Even more staggering are the percentage increases in reported fentanyl deaths since 2015.
Among those states with the most, the totals have increased since 2015 by:
- 837% in New Jersey, for a combined seven-year total of 10,020;
- 760% in Pennsylvania, with 13,933 over that same period;
- 578% in Maryland (10,096);
- 486% in New York (14,464);
- 456% in Connecticut (4,798);
- 108% in Massachusetts (10,646).
SEE: Fentanyl: The State We're In
"Unintentional drug overdose has become a grave and sustained public health burden in the US," says a recent report by JAMA Pediatrics, a journal published by the American Medical Association.
Accounting for all drugs, the report said, American teens and young adults have lost nearly 1.5 million years of life due to overdose deaths in recent years.
Ordinarily used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery, fentanyl is similar to morphine but nearly 100 times more potent.
Primarily manufactured in clandestine foreign labs and smuggled into the United States through Mexico, illicit fentanyl is being mixed in with heroin, meth and cocaine -- increasing not only its potency but also its potential to kill the user, the Drug Enforcement Administration says.
Fentanyl is "sold as powders and nasal sprays, and increasingly pressed into pills made to look like legitimate prescription opioids," the DEA notes. "Because there is no official oversight or quality control, these counterfeit pills often contain lethal doses of fentanyl, with none of the promised drug.
"It is possible for someone to take a pill without knowing it contains fentanyl. It is also possible to take a pill knowing it contains fentanyl, but with no way of knowing if it contains a lethal dose."
Here's the catch: "Producing illicit fentanyl is not an exact science," the DEA warns. "Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage. DEA analysis has found counterfeit pills ranging from .02 to 5.1 milligrams (more than twice the lethal dose) of fentanyl per tablet."
Bottom line, the DEA says: A little over two pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill a half-million people.
“The fentanyl crisis is getting worse, not better," said Families Against Fentanyl founder James Rauh, who lost his son to fentanyl poisoning. "Fake pills with deadly amounts of fentanyl are popping up everywhere. It’s in fake Xanax and Percocets, it’s being laced in cocaine and Ecstasy. A single pill can kill."
Rauh, of Akron, Ohio assembled his organization following his son's death from fentanyl poisoning in 2015. The group found that fentanyl is now the #1 cause of death among Americans 18 to 45 years old and was responsible last year for more deaths than suicide, car accidents or gun violence.
SEE: Top 10 Leading Causes of Death for People Ages 18 to 45 in the U.S.
“Mass incarceration of drug users and low-level dealers is not the answer and won’t stop the poisoning," Rauh said. "We need to go to the source and stop the illegal manufacturers of this lethal chemical.
"Almost all illicit fentanyl is manufactured in other countries. By designating fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction, the U.S. can do more to root out the illegal manufacturers and stop this poison before it ever reaches our streets. If 200,000 deaths isn’t mass destruction, I don’t know what is."
PETITION: Declare Illegal Fentanyl a Weapon of Mass Destruction (change.org)
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