More people recognize opioid overdoses, but education about stimulant overdoses hasn’t been as clear-cut

Overdoses involving stimulants are on the rise in many parts of the country, according to recently available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but experts say recognizing and responding to them is more complex when compared with opioid overdoses.

“The rate of overdose decline was not nearly what we expected” in California, said Dr Taylor Nichols, an emergency and addiction medicine physician based in Sacramento.

Nichols said that stimulants “filled the gap” left by declining fentanyl overdoses. Methamphetamine and cocaine are the most common illicit stimulants.