New rules attempt to curb opioid-related deaths in Australia. These changes are a step in the right direction – but we need to tread carefully to avoid unintended consequences.
Many LGBTQ+ people at risk for overdose are left out of harm reduction efforts.
(Unsplash/Delia Giandeini)
The overdose crisis — coupled with a lack of accessible harm reduction services — represents a growing concern for young queer and trans men who use drugs.
OxyContin is an opioid prescribed for pain relief. But some users become addicted.
Getty Images / Marie Hickman
The crisis has made recovery more difficult for those with substance use disorders. The inability to get to support group meetings, stress and illness are just some of the factors.
Aggressive marketing of prescription opioids by pharmaceutical companies provided doctors with scant information about potential harmful effects.
Incarcerated people are often denied access to treatment for opioid use disorder. This October 2016 file photo shows corrections officer opening the door to a cell in the segregation unit at the Fraser Valley Institution for Women in Abbotsford, B.C. during a media tour.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In 2016, drug misuse was cited as the top concern among New Hampshire voters. What remedies are the Democratic primary contenders putting forward to combat the opioid crisis?
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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Treatments for opioid dependence, such as methadone and buprenorphine, are effective. But some people who stand to benefit are missing out.
Naloxone, available as a nasal spray called Narcan or in injectable form, resuscitates 100% of people who overdose if administered quickly.
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Opioid overdoses killed 47,000 Americans in 2017 — more than gun violence. Many fewer would have died if they’d been treated with the life-saving drug naloxone, also called Narcan.
Scientists are working with artificial intelligence in hopes of being able to better detect cancer.
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While critics accuse companies facing lots of lawsuits of using bankruptcy as a sort of ‘get of jail free card,’ the reality of the legal procedure is more complicated.
Protests and lawsuits against opioid manufacturers are growing more common, but drug distributors are also facing scrutiny.
AP Photo/Charles Krupa
Previously secret documents and data make it clear that many companies engaged in the distribution of prescription painkillers either skirted or ignored their legal obligations for years.
Every state bears the burden of the opioid crisis.
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State governments are leading the charge against opioid makers over their role in the epidemic. A team of researchers at Penn State examined just how much the crisis has cost them.
Naked mole-rats feel no pain when exposed to acid or capsaicin.
Roland Gockel, MDC
With the opioid crisis there is no doubt that physicians need safer, nonaddictive pain killers. Now new insights on how to create these are coming from an unlikely source: the naked mole rat.