DRUG-RELATED NEWS
Healthcare Workers at High Risk of Addiction and Overdose
Addiction is often framed as a blue-collar, working-class problem or an issue faced mainly by people who are poor, homeless, or barely hanging on. When people think of addicts, they often think of people on the street. When people are asked to picture someone who struggles with addiction but who is fully employed, they might think of construction workers, miners, farmers, servers, bartenders, and general day laborers.
New Study Shows Conservative Opioid Prescribing More Safe for Patients in the Long Run
When the debate around curbing opioid prescribing began many years ago, some public health advocates expressed concern that more conservative prescribing practices would deny chronic pain patients access to pain relief.
New Research Finds Cocaine Use Can Cause Permanent Damage to the Nose
New research out of Great Britain connects rising cocaine use trends to permanent damage in the nasal passages, such that cocaine users lose their sense of smell and may even experience serious infections and tissue loss in their nasal passages.
Brace Yourself: A Tsunami of Psychedelic Drug Use May Be Coming
Technology workers’ use of psychedelic drugs in an attempt to boost productivity has been followed by more calls for medical testing and legalization. But psychedelic use is associated with delusions, psychosis, paranoia, and physical and mental harm that can be permanent.
Key Factors Creating the Highest Overdose Risk Among Drug Users
Certain drug combinations, habits, and even mental or physical health conditions greatly increase the risk of fatal drug overdose. Learn the factors that create the biggest risks.
Multiple States Stiffen Penalties on Drug Dealing. But Will This Solve America’s Addiction Epidemic?
Since January 2023, several states have significantly increased penalties on drug dealing, all to discourage drug dealers from setting up shop in their states. While the intention behind such actions is good, stiffer penalties for drug dealers won’t solve the drug crisis in hard-hit states like West Virginia and North Carolina...
FDA Takes Action to Restrict Addictive Tranquilizer Drug, But Is it Too Late?
A new report outlines how the FDA is cracking down on xylazine diversion, the animal tranquilizer currently being mixed into opioids to create deadly concoctions that kill users. The FDA is moving in the right direction by making this effort, but more needs to be done...
Cocaine Deaths Surge as Autopsies Reveal Fentanyl in Most Cocaine Overdoses
One of the most critical developments of the last decade concerning drug abuse has been stories of traces of synthetic opioids creeping into local supplies of drugs, types of drugs previously thought to be “non-lethal” (or drugs that were thought to be less lethal than others).
Meth Overdose Deaths Tripled in Recent Years
Newly published reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations have shed light on recent surges in methamphetamine-related overdose deaths. According to the data, meth fatalities have tripled in recent years. And these aren’t just slight upticks either. Thousands of Americans are now dying from methamphetamine overdoses.
New Threat to Watch For: Unwashed Poppy Seed Consumption
Clinicians and families alike may not be aware of the risk posed by consumption of a readily available type of poppy seed. Despite this lack of awareness, this seed can result in addiction, overdose and death.