Experts call for consumption rooms and wider testing of substances, as number of people dying hits new high
Experts in drug addiction have warned the government must take a different approach towards illegal substance use, or risk an increasing number of deaths from drug poisonings.
Data published by the Office for National Statistics last week showed that the number of people dying as a result of drug poisoning had reached the highest level on record.
Continue reading...Research is one of 11 projects part of a £12m government plan to reduce drug overdoses with new technology
Researchers are building a virtual reality world to help people overcome their cocaine addiction by repeatedly exposing them to tempting scenarios in a safe environment.
The project draws on the experiences of drug users to create tailored 3D experiences, such as being alone in a flat or at a party with friends, where people can be immersed via a VR headset in realistic situations that trigger the urge to take drugs.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Dr Marianne Jauncey says NSW government must make ‘hard decisions’ to combat growing threat of synthetic opioids
The head doctor at Sydney’s medically supervised injecting centre has compared the rise of synthetic opioids to a pandemic and says she is worried the government isn’t willing to make the “hard decisions” necessary to prepare for it.
Dr Marianne Jauncey began raising the alarm about the increasing prevalence of nitazenes earlier this year but was concerned the Minns Labor government had been reluctant to act because it “still feels for many like an emerging news story”.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Legalise Cannabis party MP calls on government to recognise that powerful synthetic opioids ‘aren’t just another drug’
The New South Wales government will be asked to formally recognise the powerful synthetic opioids called nitazenes as a “growing threat” as it faces calls to introduce drug-checking services.
The Legalise Cannabis party MP, Jeremy Buckingham, will move a motion in state parliament on Wednesday night to acknowledge that nitazenes are an emerging problem, including for people who don’t typically take opioids.
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Continue reading...USC study finds cannabis can help manage withdrawal symptoms, as well as cravings and anxiety after withdrawal
New research from the University of Southern California shows that cannabis might help some people stop or cut down on their opioid use.
“We interviewed 30 people who were using opioids and cannabis and injecting drugs,” said Sid Ganesh, a PhD student at USC’s medical school and lead author of the study.
Continue reading...Vaping synthetic opioids can cause overdose or unconsciousness within minutes and from just six puffs, Victorian medical expert says
A teenager died and a young man was left struggling to breathe after vaping synthetic opioids, as doctors warn the potentially deadly drugs are contaminating a growing range of recreational substances.
The patients overdosed after vaping THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis, mixed with protonitazene, a synthetic opioid 100 times more potent than heroin.
Continue reading...Sobering figure obscures the fact that the number of overdose deaths in the US declined for the first time since 2018
An estimated 107,543 people died of drug overdoses in the US in 2023, a shocking figure that obscures a glimmer of hope – this is the first annual decline in drug overdose deaths since 2018.
The grim toll represents Americans’ struggle with powerful synthetic drugs, in particular the synthetic opioid fentanyl, known to be up to 100 times stronger than morphine. More than 1 million people have died of a drug overdose since 2001, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Continue reading...NSW Health investigating after powerful drugs detected in samples related to overdoses in Nepean Blue Mountains local health district
A cluster of 20 drug overdoses in New South Wales has prompted the state’s health department to issue a public warning about the danger of synthetic opioids, which are often substantially more powerful than heroin.
Called nitazenes, the drugs are often mixed into other substances such as MDMA and heroin without the user’s knowledge.
Continue reading...Prior authorization requires permission to be sought before prescribing critical drugs, which could cost lives, doctors say
In the midst of the worst overdose epidemic in US history, addiction medicine specialists say a bureaucratic hurdle is adding to the difficulty of getting people in treatment: an insurance industry tactic called “prior authorization”.
Loathed by doctors of all stripes, prior authorization requires healthcare providers to seek permission from insurance companies before they prescribe a treatment. Doctors in addiction medicine said the requirement is both unnecessarily burdensome and could cost lives.
Continue reading...Photographer and campaigner against Sackler family tops ArtReview Power 100 list
Nan Goldin, the pioneering photographer and campaigner against the billionaires who fuelled the US opioid epidemic, has topped an annual ranking of the contemporary art world’s most influential people and organisations.
Goldin, 70, took the number one spot on the ArtReview Power 100 list. This year, for the first time, the top 10 is made up entirely of artists who use their work and platforms to intervene in the pressing social and political issues of the current moment.
Continue reading...Antony Blinken speaks at launch of US-led coalition to address synthetic drug threats
Who is responsible for the United States’ opioid epidemic? According to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, the culprits are “transnational criminal enterprises” who need to be tackled via international law enforcement operations.
But according to Chinese state media, “the fentanyl crisis in the United States is demand-driven”, primarily by “the users themselves”.
Continue reading...Company averts a trial to determine damages as drug-related deaths surged by 41% in the city in the first quarter of this year
San Francisco has reached a $230m settlement with Walgreens over the corporation’s role in the city’s unprecedented opioid crisis.
The settlement is the largest ever awarded to a local government amid years of continuing, nationwide opioid-centered litigation, according to San Francisco’s city attorney.
Continue reading...Andrés Manuel López Obrador asks China to curb exports of opioid after lengthy denunciation of similar calls from US
Mexico’s president has written to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, urging him to help control shipments of fentanyl, while also complaining of “rude” US pressure to curb the drug trade.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has previously said that fentanyl is the US’s problem and is caused by “a lack of hugs” in US families. On Tuesday he read out the letter to Xi dated 22 March in which he defended efforts to curb supply of the deadly drug, while rounding on US critics.
Continue reading...Move seen as a key strategy to control the US overdose crisis, which has been linked to more than 100,000 deaths a year
The US Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over counters in the US.
It is a move some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a life-saving drug, though the exact impact will not be clear immediately.
Continue reading...DEA says more than 379m deadly doses of opioid with strength from one and a half to 50 times stronger than heroin were seized
The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has said it seized enough fentanyl in 2022 to kill every person in America.
In a statement on Tuesday, the DEA said it had seized 50.6m fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and more than 10,000lb of fentanyl powder this year – seizures that in total represent more than 379m deadly doses.
Continue reading...London museum bows to years of pressure and removes signs acknowledging the family behind the OxyContin crisis
Campaigners calling for the name Sackler to be dropped from cultural landmarks are celebrating this weekend. Their smiles mark five years of demonstrations and dramatic stunts as another major arts institution – London’s Victoria and Albert Museum – takes down signs acknowledging the financial contribution from this wealthy family.
The museum is dropping it controversial ties with the Sackler family, descendants of US makers of addictive opioid prescription drugs. It’s a victory for the campaign group Sackler P.A.I.N, which staged a dramatic public protest at the gallery in November 2019. The group, led by American artist Nan Goldin, argued that donations from the family that founded now-bankrupt Purdue Pharma, maker of the painkiller OxyContin, were a moral stain on cultural institutions that accepted them.
Continue reading...Six men and a woman were taken to hospitals on Thursday in an incident that highlights a two-year trend in suspected opioid overdoses
Police have made an arrest in connection with fentanyl overdoses that involved five cadets from the US Military Academy at a Florida vacation home during spring break this week.
Wilton Manors police said six men and a woman overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine and were taken to hospitals on Thursday. Authorities said late on Friday they had made an arrest, but did not offer specifics.
Continue reading...The Sacklers want protection from future suits. Victims’ families want them to ‘know what their greed has caused’
Stephanie and Troy Lubinski met when they were teenagers, and they were married for three decades. Troy was big-hearted, kind, the best fisherman around, a devoted father who cared for the kids during the day after long night shifts as a firefighter.
But he had back pain that began when he worked in construction and then grew worse over the years. His doctor prescribed OxyContin, and that was the beginning of the end.
Continue reading...Settlements represent largest of opioid-related cases in epidemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans over two decades
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three major distributors finalized nationwide settlements over their role in the opioid addiction crisis Friday, an announcement that clears the way for $26bn to flow to nearly every state and local government in the US.
Taken together, the settlements are the largest to date among the many opioid-related cases that have been playing out across the country. They’re expected to provide a significant boost to efforts aimed at reversing the crisis in places that have been devastated by it, including many parts of rural America.
Continue reading...Members of Sackler family would contribute sum over 18 years under latest proposal
Members of the Sackler family who own OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, are willing to kick in more money – up to $6bn in total – to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of opioids as the company tries to work out a deal with state attorneys general who torpedoed an earlier settlement.
The offer was detailed in a report filed on Friday in US bankruptcy court by a federal mediator who asked the court to let her have until the end of the month to broker a new settlement.
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