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A new deadly drug called carfentanil is in Santa Clara County, medical experts say. It's a synthetic opioid like fentanyl, but much stronger. On Wednesday, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michelle Jordan announced that the county's first overdose death due to carfentanil was reported last week. "Carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl," Dr. Jordan said. National Fentanyl Awareness Day highlights the dangers of the drug causing a crisis in San Francisco and killing thousands across the country. Last week, a 39-year-old man was found dead with M30 pills, counterfeit pills made to look like prescription oxycodone. "What I'm really...

Opioids, potent pain relievers for patients with cancer, frequently cause constipation, which is a significant issue. Researchers revealed that administering naldemedine, which is a constipation medication, alongside opioids effectively prevents opioid-induced constipation, thereby improving the patient's quality of life. Pain relief for patients with cancer is crucial, and opioids, such as morphine, play a vital role. However, constipation, which negatively affects the patient's quality of life, is a common side effect of opioid administration. This condition, also known as opioid-induced constipation, is prevalent and frequently does not resolve on its own, thereby necessitating effective interventions. A recent study aimed to...

If we’ve learned anything from our national COVID experience, it’s that science is not a collection of fixed, eternal declarations. Tools and terminology useful in the process of discovery can also be instruments of confirmation. A microscope can be a portal to the unexpected, or a prop in a theatrical performance. True crime documentaries and news reports of deaths often feature a statement such as, “toxicology was performed,” “toxicology is pending,” or “toxicology showed X, Y and Z.” The word, “toxicology,” has an aura of a thorough, definitive procedure. Typically, “toxicology” is understood as analogous to drug screening the living,...

Overdose deaths linked to a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than fentanyl have more than doubled in the city — while a new lethal sedative has been detected for the first time in the Big Apple’s drug supply. Both terrifying drugs have created a perfect public-health storm, prompting city officials on Thursday to issue a warning about carfentanil — powerful enough to sedate an elephant — and medetomidine, an animal tranquilizer experts say is more potent than “zombie drug” xylazine. Yet, despite the two poisons making the city’s cocaine and heroin supply an even more deadly gamble, the city’s Health...

A synthetic opioid described as 'fentanyl on steroids' was seized in a Florida drug bust, according to police. West Palm Beach police confiscated $1.6 million worth of N-Desethyl Isotonitazene - known as ISO - during a raid, reported WPBF. Authorities discovered the deadly drug in powder, pill and brick form while executing search warrants on a home and a storage unit earlier in July. '[The substances] came back as 50 times more potent than normal fentanyl that we normally deal with,' Lt. Joe Herb said. 'Fentanyl is normally very dangerous. Now, we're talking about 50 times stronger.' Police said the...

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced this week that 5.8 million fentanyl-laced pills have been confiscated throughout California since January by the state’s Counterdrug Task Force in collaboration with local and federal law enforcement agencies. As state officials celebrate consistently increasing confiscations of the synthetic opioid, though, experts say that the seizures will likely not affect the illicit drug market significantly. Over the last three years, the number of fentanyl-laced pills confiscated statewide has increased dramatically. In 2021, only 1.5 million pills were seized statewide. That number jumped almost sevenfold to 10.3 million pills seized in 2022, and then more than doubled...

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...

Top House Homeland Security Committee Democrat Bennie Thompson (D-MS) used a hearing on the border crisis to instead call for the impeachment of Donald Trump. In the kickoff hearing in impeachment proceedings for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Thompson, who chaired Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Select Committee on January 6, did not mention the words “border,” “cartel,” or “opioid” during his questioning of witnesses. Instead, he only addressed the Democrat witness, law professor Frank Bowman, while making the case for Trump’s impeachment. He failed to use the full time allotted to him, time which could have been used to ask...

Office of Public Affairs The Justice Department announced today that Allegheny County, Pennsylvania has agreed to offer treatment with any Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medication for opioid use disorder (OUD) to all individuals booked into the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) for whom such treatment is medically appropriate. Allegheny County will also pay $10,000 to an individual allegedly denied access to methadone in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA prohibits state and local governments from discriminating against individuals with disabilities and protects people in recovery from OUD, including individuals who are taking OUD medication at the...

From one end of the country to the other, officials are tracking yet another nitazene analogue that has caused at least 20 overdose deaths to date. Recently acquired in vitro pharmacological data shows this emergent novel synthetic opioid—called N-pyrrolidino protonitazene (also protonitazepyne)—is 25x more potent than fentanyl. Nitazene analogues are a novel class of synthetic opioids that can be up to 40 times more potent than fentanyl and up to 500 times more potent than morphine. While they vary in potency, most retain opioid receptor activity. In January, for example, the Center for Forensic Science Research & Education (CFSRE), identified...

Walgreens will pay the city of San Francisco nearly $230 million, after a federal judge found the company liable for contributing to the city’s opioid epidemic. The settlement, which will be paid out over 14 years, will go towards addressing the city’s opioid crisis, San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu announced on Wednesday. “Opioids have wreaked havoc across our nation leading to immense suffering and untold damage,” he said in a statement. “Cities like San Francisco have shouldered much of the burden of the opioid epidemic. “ “Following our win against Walgreens during the liability phase, this historic agreement ensures...

Florida’s Attorney General, Republican Ashley Moody, is calling on her state to add a frightening new “Frankenstein” opioid that is reportedly 40 times more potent than fentanyl to the list of Schedule 1 controlled substances, a designation that stipulates the drug has no acceptable medical use and carries a high risk for abuse. Other drugs to receive that classification include heroin, ecstasy, and peyote, among others. Officially known as “nitazene compounds,” Moody warns “one pill will kill,” and it’s already spreading across America. “For years, I have been warning about how just one pill laced with fentanyl can kill, but...

On January 18, 2023, the United States filed its Complaint and proposed Consent Decree to resolve allegations that Cumberland County, Tennessee violated Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act by denying a corrections officer a reasonable accommodation and constructively discharging him based on his disability of opioid use disorder. In addition, the County implemented a policy that prevents people who are taking legally prescribed controlled substances or certain medications from having those substances or medications present in their system while at work for the County, thus prohibiting working for the County while taking such medications. Under the Consent Decree,...

Patients can recover from orthopedic surgery just as well without using opioid-based painkillers. Study results showed that by prescribing a combination of three non-opioid painkillers to patients, researchers successfully reduced approximately tenfold the amounts of opioids consumed over a six-week post-operative period, without altering their pain levels. Co-principal investigator Olufemi Ayeni and his team gleaned their results by enrolling 193 patients between March 2021 and March 2022. The patients were randomly assigned to either a control group of 98 receiving standard opioid-based painkillers or an opioid-free group (93) receiving a combination therapy of naproxen, acetaminophen and pantoprazole and a patient...

It's estimated that more than 107,000 people in the United States died due to opioid overdoses in 2021. Washington Post journalist Scott Higham notes it's "the equivalent of a 737 Boeing crashing and burning and killing everybody on board every single day." In the new book, American Cartel, Higham and co-author Sari Horwitz make the case that the pharmaceutical industry operated like a drug cartel, with manufacturers at the top; wholesalers in the middle; and pharmacies at the level of "street dealers." What's more, Higham says, the companies collaborated with each other — and with lawyers and lobbyists — to...

Aromatherapy reduces post-surgical opioid use by half in hip replacement patients anxious before their operation, according to a new study. Previous research has shown that anxiety, depression and catastrophising (patients who believe they are going to die during surgery) increase post-operative pain and opioid use by up to 50%. Aromatherapy, the use of essential oils to enhance well-being, has been used for thousands of years and a number of recent studies have found that lavender and peppermint aromatherapy, in particular, can reduce anxiety. This study is one of the first to employ a randomized, placebo-controlled design to look at whether...

The large-scale drug trafficking operation of an infamous cartel just got busted in a mountain state some 1,400 miles from its Mexican headquarters and only one U.S. official, a local prosecutor, has dared to acknowledge the obvious; “This poison is coming over from our southern border unchecked,” said the elected prosecutor of Colorado’s largest district. “It will not stop coming over the border from Mexico into our communities until the federal government takes that porous border seriously.” His name is John Kellner, district attorney in the state’s 18th Judicial District which serves a population of about 1.3 million and covers...

When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he'd called home for three decades, where he'd raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality. In 2016, after flooding displaced people in nearby counties, Njoku began dispensing buprenorphine to them and to local customers at his Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in Fayette County. WBUR is a nonprofit news organization and our coverage relies on your financial support. Please give today. Buprenorphine, a controlled substance sold under the brand names Subutex and Suboxone, is...

Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, according to a report the CDC issued in July 2021. The data indicates more than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020—a 29% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019. While it’s still early in the process, scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons have now taken a step toward turning those numbers around. A team at the university is leading a Phase 1a/1b clinical trial for an experimental vaccine for treatment of opioid use...

Thailand has decriminalized the possession and sale of kratom, a plant that's native to Southeast Asia whose leaves are used as a mild stimulant and painkillerThailand on Tuesday decriminalized the possession and sale of kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia whose leaves are used as a mild stimulant and painkiller and which has a following in the United States for its pain-relieving qualities. Justice Minister Somsak Thepsuthin said thousands of legal cases for the possession or sale of kratom were being dropped, and 121 inmates convicted in such cases would be released immediately. Possession of kratom had been punishable...