ArticleThe International journal on drug policy2025
National and regional trends in fentanyl seizures in the United States, 2017-2023.
Article in The International journal on drug policy, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- An evaluation of N-acetylcysteine in a sequential oxycodone and cocaine rat self-administration model.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Stability and turbulence in illegal drug markets.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Drug positivity, co-detection patterns, and demographic predictors in patients seeking substance use disorder treatment, United States, 2023.Addictive behaviors · 2026Article
- Surveillance of emerging drug trends: utilizing the National Drug Early Warning System.Current opinion in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Trends in fentanyl-containing drug samples seized by law enforcement agencies across Canada.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- The changing contribution of fentanyl use to non-fatal overdose among a cohort of people who inject drugs in San Diego, California: A longitudinal assessment.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Cannabis legalization and law enforcement drug seizures: a state-level analysis of cannabis policy effects on cannabis seizures in the United States, 2010-2023.The International journal on drug policy · 2026Article
- Global burden of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use in 204 countries, 1990-2023: a Global Burden of Disease Study.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Proportion of Fentanyl Reports in Illicit Drug Seizures and Opioid Mortality.JAMA health forum · 2026Article
- Spatio-Temporal Modeling for Multi-County Opioid Overdose Surveillance: A Unified Graph Convolutional Framework.AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science · 2026Article
- The Donovan Memorial Lecture: 'Fentanyl-Plus': A New Era of Fentanyl Polydrug Combinations in the North American Overdose Crisis.Journal of medical toxicology : official journal of the American College of Medical Toxicology · 2026Article
- Use of Illegally Manufactured Fentanyl in the United States: Current Trends.Current addiction reports · 2025Article
- A Drd1-cre mouse line with nucleus accumbens gene dysregulation exhibits blunted fentanyl seeking.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- High variation in purity of consumer-level illicit fentanyl samples in Los Angeles, September 2023-April 2025.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- The Epidemiology of Recreational Use and Availability of DOC and DOI in the United States.Journal of psychoactive drugs · 2025Article
- Longitudinal associations between frequency and recency of nonmedical prescription stimulant use in adolescence and cocaine use in young adulthood.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- "I don't know how you can overdose smoking them:" Perceptions of overdose risks among persons who use illicit fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- Reported outcomes from a community naloxone training and distribution program.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- An analysis of the size of law enforcement seizures of illicit fentanyl in the United States, 2018-2023.Drug and alcohol review · 2025Article
- Nonfatal pediatric fentanyl exposures reported to US poison centers, 2015-2023.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2025Article
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5 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundRates of synthetic opioid-related deaths over time and across regions have been compared within the US, but other indicator data could help inform prevention and harm reduction as well. We compared regional trends in fentanyl seizures to examine potential shifts in illicit fentanyl availability.
methodsAnnual trends in fentanyl seizures were examined using data from High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas for the US overall and by region from 2017 through 2023. Multiple measures included the number of seizures, the number of powder seizures, the number of pill seizures, the total weight of seizures, the number of pills seized, and the percentage of the number of pill seizures relative to the number of total seizures.
resultsThe percentage of seizures in pill form in the US increased from 10.3 % in 2017 to 49.0 % in 2023 (adjusted annual percentage change [AAPC]=25.2, 95 % CI: 17.6, 33.2), with 115.6 million individual pills seized in 2023. Pill weight related to total seizure weight also increased from 0.4 % to 54.5 % (AAPC=112.6, 95 % CI: 78.6, 153.2). In 2023, the plurality of seizures was in the West, in seven out of eight of our measures, with 77.8 % of seizures in the West being in pill form. Although the Midwest had lower prevalence of seizures than the West, there were notable increases in the Midwest in the number of pill seizures (AAPC=142.2, 95 % CI: 91.9, 205.8) and number of pills seized (AAPC=421.0, 95 % CI: 272.7, 628.4). Total weight of fentanyl seized increased the most in the West (AAPC=84.6, 95 % CI: 72.3, 97.8).
conclusionsThe number and size of fentanyl seizures is increasing in the US, with the majority of seizures, especially in pill form, in the West. Continued monitoring of regional shifts in the fentanyl supply can help inform targeted prevention and public health response.
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