The Philadelphia Medical Examiner’s Office found that nitazenes, a synthetic opioid up to 40 times more powerful than fentanyl, were connected to at least five overdose deaths in Philadelphia in…
Tag: Opioids
Nearly 2 million Americans are using kratom yearly, but it is banned in multiple states: A pharmacologist explains the controversy
Kratom products are sold online and at smoke shops and gas stations, like this one in Lone Tree, Colo. Amanda Mascarelli The herbal substance kratom, derived from the leaves of…
Nitazenes are a powerful class of street drugs emerging across the US
Two deaths in Boulder County, Colorado, in 2023 are the latest in the U.S. to be blamed on the powerful class of synthetic opioids called nitazenes. Most health systems cannot…
Untrained bystanders can administer drone-delivered naloxone, potentially saving lives of opioid overdose victims
An onlooker – even one without prior training – can successfully administer naloxone to an overdose victim within about a minute of a drone delivering the lifesaving opioid reversal agent.…
Dozens of US adolescents are dying from drug overdoses every month − an expert on substance use unpacks the grim numbers with 3 charts
Drug overdose deaths in the United States continue to rise. Overdoses claimed more than 112,000 American lives from May 2022 to May 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control…
Philadelphia bans supervised injection sites – evidence suggests keeping drug users on the street could do more harm than good
The United States remains tightly in the grasp of an ongoing, and escalating, crisis of deaths caused by opioid overdoses. With a record-high 109,000 people dying in 2022, it is…
Myths about will power and moral weakness keep people with opioid use disorder from receiving effective medications like methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone
The most effective science-based treatment for opioid use disorder is medication. Methadone and buprenorphine prevent intense cravings and other symptoms of withdrawal, while naltrexone works by blocking the effects of…
FDA approval of over-the-counter Narcan is an important step in the effort to combat the US opioid crisis
On March 29, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan for over-the-counter sale. Narcan is the 4-milligram nasal spray version of naloxone, a medication that can quickly counteract…
What is xylazine? A medical toxicologist explains how it increases overdose risk, and why Narcan can still save a life
The White House officially designated fentanyl adulterated with xylazine as an emerging threat to the U.S. on Apr. 12, 2023. Earlier, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a warning on…
Increases in opioid overdoses in Pennsylvania varied by county during the COVID-19 pandemic
The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the opioid epidemic, according to our new research, which finds that opioid…
