The deadliest phase of the U.S. fentanyl crisis appears to be over. That's according to new research showing fatal overdoses from fentanyl and other street drugs continue to plunge and have now dropped from their peak in all 50 states. But with that good news comes with challenges including caring for a larger population of people, who are surviving, but may be deeply unwell.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Email us at considerthis@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Louise Vincent and how has fentanyl affected her?
We've had an entire community swept away. I can't even think of all the people that I know that have died.
That's Louise Vincent talking to NPR addiction correspondent Brian Mann a few years ago as fentanyl deaths in the U.S. were soaring.
I mean, so many people are dead. My daughter died. Our mentors are dead. I can barely stand to be here sometimes because of all the trauma and all the people that we've lost.
Vincent, who says that she has used fentanyl and heroin since she was 13, runs what's called a drug users union. That's a group that seeks to treat drug users with dignity by giving them a place where they can get a meal, a cup of coffee, even treatment. She was speaking to Mann about harm reduction for drug users.
Vincent is one of the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have been affected by the nation's opioid crisis, a crisis that has reached almost every corner of the country. including the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. That's where Brian Mann met Gary and Cassie Walker on their family farm a couple years ago. They've taken in nine Cherokee kids whose parents have been affected by drugs.
All of the children we have adopted or fostered has been because of that.
Being in foster care and going to court cases, and sometimes I would sit there for four to five or six hours, and I would not only watch one court case, but I would watch 30 or 40 at the same time. And it really hit me then just how big the problem was.
Among the kids they have cared for are a brother and sister, Ransom, who's six, and Mazzy, who's nine and not the least bit shy.
So I heard you live in New York.
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Chapter 2: Who are Gary and Cassie Walker and how have they been impacted by the opioid crisis?
A few blocks down the street, I meet Tracy Horvath, who says she's lived in Kensington most of her life, much of that time using fentanyl.
I relapsed like a week ago, but I'm trying to stay clean.
She looks weary and cold, but she is one of the survivors. Horvath, too, says fentanyl might have killed her if Narcan weren't so widely available.
I only used a little bit and I still overdosed.
I asked what she'd need to move beyond this life, beyond addiction. Horvath says her first goal is a safe place to live.
Stable housing.
Addiction care experts say getting people off the street into homes is often a crucial step. But there are so many needs here, it can feel overwhelming. Kayla McLeod says there has been progress building a network of services and support that didn't exist a decade ago.
There's one of our partners, the Kensington Hospital Wound Care Van.
We pass a mobile healthcare team and a food pantry. There's a special police unit trained in addiction response and a group from a university dispensing buprenorphine, a medication that reduces fentanyl cravings. I meet Scout Gilson working at a syringe exchange run by a group called Prevention Point.
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