Showing posts with label opioids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label opioids. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 23, 2024

The war on drugs is a war

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The war on drugs doesn't begin at U.S. borders. Here's a dispatch from Ecuador, in the WSJ: Ecuador Is at War With Drug Gangs, Presi...
Saturday, December 30, 2023

Some year-end good news: U.S. homicides are down

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To put deaths in their grim perspective, we have a lot more deaths from drug overdoses than from homicides.  But we're headed in the rig...
Thursday, December 7, 2023

Drug addiction: not just opioids

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 Consumption of addictive drugs seems to come in deadly cocktails these days, which is making interdiction of drugs, and treatment of addict...
Friday, October 13, 2023

Fentanyl

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  The NY Times has the story: Some Key Facts About Fentanyl . It’s lowering American life expectancy and influencing the nation’s politics. ...
Friday, September 1, 2023

Innovations in addiction technology--illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF) combined with xylazine

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 The fight against addictions is complicated by the fact that those who sell addictive goods can be innovative on many levels. (In the case ...
Tuesday, August 8, 2023

Homelessness and fentanyl, in Oregon and California

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 Both the criminal justice system and the harm reduction movement seem to be facing an intractable problem with fentanyl and homelessness.  ...
Saturday, July 29, 2023

Drug markets: the replacement of agriculture by chemistry

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Labs are replacing fields as the source of addictive drugs. Here are two stories, from National Affairs, and the Financial Times. The curren...
Sunday, May 21, 2023

Drug Overdose Deaths Topped 100,000 Again in 2022

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  The WSJ has the story: the headline speaks for itself   Drug Overdose Deaths Topped 100,000 Again in 2022  https://www.wsj.com/articles/dr...
Friday, March 31, 2023

Opioids and Appalachia by Sally Satel

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  Sally Satel , who has treated patients in Appalachia, writes movingly of the drug addiction problem there. Here's a paragraph that set...
Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Canada experiments with decriminalization of opioids and other drugs in British Columbia

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 From the CBC: What you need to know about the decriminalization of possessing illicit drugs in B.C.  B.C. granted exemption by federal gove...
Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Opioids and pain management: revised CDC guidelines

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 Concerned over the opioid addiction epidemic in the U.S., and the increasing number of overdose related deaths, the CDC issued the 2016 CDC...
Saturday, November 19, 2022

Why is it so easy to get drugs, and so hard to get drug abuse treatment? Overdose deaths continue to climb.

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  Here's an update on drug abuse in the U.S., from the WSJ. One quote particularly struck me, from a mom whose child died: "it’s so...
Saturday, April 30, 2022

Opioid deaths are behind increases in deceased organ donation

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 Medpage Today warns us not to take credit for increases in organ donation that are due to rising numbers of opioid overdose deaths.  'S...
Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Opioid prescription reductions and suicides

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 Addictive drugs are repugnant, but painkillers are essential pharmaceuticals.  In an effort to reduce addiction, guidelines have been formu...
Sunday, January 30, 2022

Chemistry is replacing agriculture in the supply of black market drugs

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  The war on drugs is getting more complicated, as chemistry replaces agriculture as a primary source.  This calls for changes in both law e...
Thursday, December 2, 2021

Supervised drug injection sites open in NYC

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 The NY Times has the story: Nation’s First Supervised Drug-Injection Sites Open in New York . During the first official day in operation at...
Thursday, November 18, 2021

Drug overdose deaths between April 2020 and 2021 reach 100,000

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  The Washington Post has the story: 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 12 months during the pandemic   By Dan Keating and Lenny Be...
Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Opioid prescription and curtailment are associated with increased rates of suicide among rural veterans:

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 Chronic pain, followed by prescription of opioid pain medicines, is sometimes followed by opioid addiction.  A recent NBER working paper sh...
Tuesday, June 29, 2021

‘Harm Reduction’ Gains Federal Support.

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 Another shot has been fired in the American war against drugs, this time in the battle between those who insist that drug abuse is everywhe...
Friday, April 30, 2021

Not all excess mortality during the pandemic comes from infection: overdose deaths in Cook County

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 A recent paper in JAMA reminds us that not all excess mortality during the pandemic is due to infection with Covid-19: Mason M, Arukumar P,...