Long-acting injectable buprenorphine is also known by the brand names Buvidal or Sublocade.
Approaching the opioid crisis from a public health perspective includes massively increasing access to care and treatment for patients experiencing substance use disorder.
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There were more than 100,000 opioid-related deaths in North America in 2022. How the crisis grew to such proportions, and three potential paths to ending it.
A nurse dispenses liquid Methadose, an FDA-approved medication that helps people addicted to opioids.
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Prescription medications can help people with opioid use disorder avoid the risks of relapse and overdose. But stigma based on misperceptions about addiction limits their use.
Although xylazine is not an opioid, naloxone can reverse the effects of the fentanyl and heroin it is often mixed with.
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Xylazine, or tranq, is increasingly being mixed with drugs like fentanyl or heroin and can be difficult to detect. Most people who use drugs are unable to tell if they have been exposed to it.
Judy Ryan’s book describes, in meticulous detail, what it took for the Victorian government to trial the state’s first safe injecting facility, through the lens of a local Richmond resident.
A supervised consumption site in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, in 2021. B.C. has decriminalized simple possession of drugs, including methamphetamines and opioids.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In 2013 stories emerged of gangs stealing plasma TV screens to use to make street drugs. It’s a myth, but it tells us something about South Africa’s social anxieties.
Around 200 people in England use diamorphine as a treatment for drug addiction.
Jim Wileman/ Alamy Stock Photo
Current supply shortages may also be a problem for people in palliative care or receiving cancer treatment.
Cash crop: poppy cultivation and heroin trafficking vie with people smuggling as some of the most lucrative ways of making money in Afghanistan.
EPA-EFE/Ghulamullah Habibi
Having taken charge of multiple vital border trading posts, the Taliban is now increasingly in control of the Afghan drug trade.
According to Oregon law, possessing a small amount of drugs for personal consumption is now a civil – rather than criminal – offense.
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Possessing heroin, cocaine, meth and other drugs for personal use is no longer a criminal offense in Oregon. The idea is to get people with problem drug use help, not punishment.
Opium played a fascinating role in southern African colonial politics, conflict and social change - from the poppy fields of Mozambique to the early days of Johannesburg city.
From colonial poppy fields to pharmatrash, southern Africa offers a fascinating history of drug regimes – one that helps us make sense of drug policies and legislation today.
To reduce opioid-related harms, we must ensure treatments for opioid dependence are accessible to those who need them.
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