• sbv@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    Deaths are down in the US as well. One of the theories I heard posited was that the producers are cutting the purity of the drugs so their users last longer and are able to buy more product. 🤷‍♂️

    • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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      3 days ago

      Just like diseases tend to mutate over time so that they’re less likely to kill the infected.

    • Victor Villas@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      It always has been on their best interest to not kill users, the toxicity of the supply has several reasons and a major one is aiming for high potency to make more money from each gram so that the business is viable even with logistic losses.

      So just as there’s an incentive to make it less “pure” (by mixing with filler), there’s an incentive to make it more “pure” (reducing the prevalence of the strongest opioids), both reducing the potency. And the counter incentive is, ironically, crackdown. The more drug busts and logistics disruptions they have, the higher the incentive is to increase potency (and overdoses).