Importing the Opioid Crisis? International Trade and Fentanyl Overdoses

Timothy J Moore, William W. Olney and Benjamin Hansen
Additional contact information
Timothy J Moore: Purdue University
William W. Olney: Williams College

No 2025_115, Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, Williams College

Abstract: "The U.S. opioid crisis is now driven by fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that currently accounts for 90% of all opioid deaths. Fentanyl is smuggled from abroad, with little evidence of how this happens. We find a positive relationship between state-level imports and drug overdoses, which is consistent with fentanyl smuggling occurring via legal trade flows. This relationship accounts for 14,000-20,000 deaths per year, and is not explained by geographic differences in ``deaths of despair,'' general demand for opioids, or import competition. Our results suggest that fentanyl smuggling via imports is pervasive and a key determinant of recent opioid problems."

Keywords: opioid crisis; fentanyl; drug overdoses; smuggling; drug trafficking; imports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F1 F6 K4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 68
Date: 2025-08-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hea
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.36934/wecon:2025_115 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Importing the Opioid Crisis? International Trade and Fentanyl Overdoses (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wil:wileco:2025_115

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

The price is Free.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Department of Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics, Williams College Williamstown, MA 01267. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Greg Phelan ().