Free Republic

As authorities clamp down on fentanyl distribution and the amount of heroin produced in Afghanistan decreases under the Taliban, criminal enterprises have turned to a deadly alternative. Some health agencies in Europe are reporting a rise in deaths and overdoses from a type of synthetic opioid that can reportedly be hundreds of times stronger than heroin and up to forty times stronger than fentanyl. 2-Benzyl Benzimidazole opioids, commonly known as nitazines, are a class of synthetic compound developed in the 1950s as painkillers, but which were never approved for use as medicines. Because of their potency, compared with natural opioids...

The teenager who arrived at Jose de Jesus Lopez's drug rehab clinic in the industrial Mexican city of Monterrey in December had unusual symptoms. The 17-year-old's family had taken the boy to hospital a few days earlier when he'd had trouble breathing and then passed out after supposedly consuming cocaine, the director said. Now he was sweaty and nauseous. He'd been vomiting and couldn't sleep. "Something doesn't add up," thought Lopez, who is also the head of an addiction center network in Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located.

In early 2020, Mandi Fugate Sheffel, 42, opened a tiny bookstore in her hometown of Hazard, in eastern Kentucky. Everyone thought she was crazy. Downtown Hazard was a forbidding place to start any business, much less a bookstore. The coal mines that once supported the area had closed over the past few decades. Many brick buildings from Hazard’s heyday were gone, bequeathing a gap-toothed look to Main Street. The rest were empty or occupied by attorneys and bail bondsmen. What’s more, Fugate Sheffel couldn’t afford a website or employees. She had never run a business before. And she had a...

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved over the years when naloxone — commonly known as Narcan — is administered to someone overdosing on opioids. Drugs Illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl can be mixed with xylazine, either to enhance drug effects or increase street value by increasing their weight. sedative/tranquilizer called xylazine to heroin, fentanyl and other opioids. And that’s bad news for addicts because naloxone doesn’t reverse a xylazine overdose. National Center for Biotechnology Information “You overdose on xylazine, and you’re going to die,” said the commander of the Greater Harrison Drug & Violent Crimes...

In September, Narcan — the first over-the-counter naloxone nasal spray approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration without a prescription — was rolled out to pharmacies and drugstores across the United States with a retail price of $44.99 for a pack of two devices. Experts have already hailed the widespread availability of the medication, which quickly reverses the effects of an opioid overdose, as a "lifesaving" tool amid alarming rates of drug overdose deaths. In 2021, more than 75% of those deaths involved opioids, with fentanyl contributing to more than 77% of adolescent overdose deaths that year. Indeed,...

San Francisco's drug overdose crisis is 'out of control,'.. Fentanyl and other drugs kill one person every 10 hours . ... San Francisco saw a staggering 41 percent surge in the number of drug-related deaths in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year. ... That amounts to one overdose death every 10 hours in a city that has seen its reputation as a coastal gem ravaged by worsening crime, drugs, and, homelessness rates, even as it remains home to tech billionaires. The overdose victims were disproportionately black and Latino men ... Fentanyl, a potent synthetic...

Doctor burnout has been linked to overprescribing opioids and antibiotics, a new study suggests. The study published in the British Journal of General Practice found that general practitioners who work long hours are up to five times more likely to prescribe high levels of medications. Researchers at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) center at the University of Manchester surveyed 320 GPs over 57 practices between December 2019 and April 2020 for signs of burnout including emotional exhaustion, low job satisfaction and feeling detached from colleagues and patients. They linked the burnout scores to an analysis of...

The overdose-reversing drug naloxone should be made available over the counter to aid the national response to the opioid crisis, U.S. health advisers said Wednesday. The panel of Food and Drug Administration experts voted unanimously in favor of the switch after a full day of presentations and discussions centered on whether untrained users would be able to safely and effectively use the nasal spray in emergency situations. The positive vote, which is not binding, came despite concerns from some panel members about the drug’s instructions and packaging, which caused confusion among some people in a company study. The manufacturer, Emergent...

Drug overdose deaths among US teens doubled from 2019 to 2021 - even as use of illicit substances declined - as fentanyl fueled a nationwide crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported today that teenage overdoses increased 109 percent over the two years. Deaths caused by fentanyl alone increased 182 percent. Officials warn that many US teens are dying after ingesting drugs like cocaine, Adderall or Xanax that are contaminated with fentanyl. They also warn that social media platforms have become a new marketplace for illicit drugs. The nation's drug overdose crisis has struck everyone, with a...

A former Los Angeles Angels employee was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison Tuesday for providing Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs the drugs that led to his 2019 overdose death in Texas. Eric Kay, a former media relations director for the Angels, dressed in an orange jumpsuit with handcuffs and leg shackles, didn't react when U.S. District Judge Terry R. Means read his sentence. Kay faced at least 20 years in prison on one of the two counts. There was no reaction from Skaggs' widow and mother or members of Kay's family, including one of his sons who testified on...

Officers with the Colorado State Patrol seized 114 pounds of pure fentanyl on a highway on June 6. SNIP The 114 pounds of pure fentanyl powder was found below the passenger and driver seats, reachable by a trap door, and were in 48 one-kilo bricks. SNIP Figures by the DEA say that one kilogram of fentanyl can kill up to 500,000 people. The bust on June 6 had the potential to kill over 25 million people, according to those figures.

Over 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday. Overdose fatalities, which already reached record highs in 2020, increased by 15 percent in 2021.

The Rays announced this evening that bullpen catcher Jean Ramirez has passed away at age 28. A late-round pick out of Illinois State in the 2016 draft, Ramirez played three seasons in Tampa Bay’s farm system before being released. Soon afterwards, however, the club rehired Ramirez for a new role as the bullpen catcher on the big league club, opening a door towards the coaching career Ramirez looked to establish. “He brought so much passion and energy each day to our clubhouse and bullpen, and his love for the Rays and baseball was evident to all. He had the biggest...

Three retail pharmacy chains recklessly distributed vast amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said on Tuesday, in a verdict that could set the tone for US city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis. Lake and Trumbull counties blamed pharmacies operated by CVS, Walgreens and Walmart for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1bn, their attorney said.

It’s one of the strongest opioids in circulation, so deadly an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person. Until July, when drug users in the United States started overdosing on carfentanil, the substance was best known for knocking out moose and elephants — or as a chemical weapon. Despite the dangers, Chinese vendors offer to sell carfentanil openly online, for worldwide export, no questions asked, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP identified 12 Chinese businesses that said they would export carfentanil to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium and Australia for...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California judge has ruled for top drug manufacturers as local governments seek billions of dollars to cover their costs from the nation’s opioid epidemic. Orange County Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson issued a tentative ruling on Monday that said the governments hadn’t proven the pharmaceutical companies used deceptive marketing to increase unnecessary opioid prescriptions and create a public nuisance. “There is simply no evidence to show that the rise in prescriptions was not the result of the medically appropriate provision of pain medications to patients in need,” Wilson wrote in a ruling of more than...

The city knows addicts will continue their addiction regardless of what case managers say, so instead they offer a free 'booty bumping kit' as a 'good choice if your veins are hard to hit.'This article contains explicit content about illicit drugs.A self-described “social justice” homeless shelter is using Seattle city funds to feed addicts’ deadly disease. Tax dollars are used to buy heroin pipes, syringes, and “booty bumping kits,” which allow users to rectally inject drugs for a more intense high.The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) operates several low-barrier shelters in Seattle. They serve the chronically homeless population, including those...

He has lost his mind… He wants to keep everyone dependent on the system. They cant have a healthy community that works for a living

The gleaming white booth towered over the medical conference in Italy in October, advertising a new brand of antidote for opioid overdoses. “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life,” the slogan on its walls said. Some conference attendees were stunned when they saw the company logo: Mundipharma, the international affiliate of Purdue Pharma — the maker of the blockbuster opioid, OxyContin, widely blamed for unleashing the American overdose epidemic. Here they were cashing in on a cure. “You’re in the business of selling medicine that causes addiction and overdoses, and now you’re in the business of selling medicine that treats...

Tufts University is cutting ties with the Sacklers, saying it will remove the name from buildings and will no longer accept donations due to the family's role in the opioid crisis. The Sacklers owns Purdue Pharma, which makes OxyContin, a powerful narcotic that has been implicated in thousands of Americans falling to addiction and/or fatally overdosing. Several institutions have vowed to stop accepting gifts from the family, but Tufts, in Boston, is the first to publicly take letters off the signs of buildings. On Thursday, the Sackler name was dropped from five campus facilities and programs, including the biomedical sciences...