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“I Don’T Want To Die”: A Qualitative Study Of Coping Strategies To Prevent Fentanyl‑Related Overdose Deaths Among People Who Inject Drugs And Its Implications For Harm Reduction Policies, Roberto Abadie

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background Fentanyl and fentanyl-related analogues are the main drivers of overdose death in the USA, particularly among people who inject drugs (PWID). Despite the fact that non-Hispanic whites exhibit higher population rates of synthetic opioid mortality, overdose deaths have increased among African American and Latinos in urban areas. Yet little attention has been paid to the introduction of fentanyl among rural PWID in Puerto Rico.

Methods We conducted N = 38 in-depth interviews with PWID in rural Puerto Rico to document participants’ experiences of injection drug use after the arrival of fentanyl and the strategies they implemented to manage overdose …