UW Report–Heroin Use Plummets, Fentanyl and Meth Climbing Fast

The UW School of Medicine has released a new study, showing the latest trends in WA State on drug abuse.

  Majority of those surveyed were white

The survey comes from the study called the Washington State Syringe Services Study. It involved 1,667 persons who were actually talked to, who have some form of drug addiction.

Some of the data is surprising, some not. The majority of the persons said they had used meth at least once in the previous week, (89 percent) while 51 percent said they'd used fentanyl at least once every five days. Those two drugs were listed as the most prevalent.

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The majority of the study respondents were white males, the study had persons between 18 and 79, and the average median age of the survey recipient was 41. Men made up 63 percent of users, women 34 percent.

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72 percent of the users were white, 12 percent black, 11 percent Native American, and 10 percent Hispanic.

The most used drugs by these 1,667 respondents were a tie between meth and fentanyl both at 39 percent. Heroin was 7 percent, crack or cocaine 4 percent.

Only 20 percent had what could be considered permanent housing, or a structure they could reliably utilize for shelter.  For more on the study, click here.