Opioid Addiction

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court revoked the Sackler family’s bankruptcy protections, making them liable for future lawsuits related to the opioid crisis. The ruling acknowledges their role in deceptive practices that fueled the opioid epidemic, paving the way for new negotiations and potential accountability.

Oxycodone is one of the most common yet one of the least understood prescription opioids. What is oxycodone? How is it different from OxyContin and other opioids? What is the scope of its use? And perhaps most importantly, what can be done for those who are addicted to oxycodone, including those who have legitimate prescriptions for the drug?

This article defines the emerging drug trend that is kratom experimentation, showing the effects of the drug and digging into the controversy surrounding it.

Opioid addiction has stood at the center of the American drug addiction crisis since the late 1990s when pharmaceutical companies began aggressively promoting opioid painkillers to doctors and patients. But what is the scope of opioid addiction today?

A survey out of New York City found something quite alarming. According to the survey, about 80% of IV drug users in New York City tested positive for fentanyl, but only 18% intended to use that specific drug. These findings showcase the harmful issues of fentanyl being laced into the drug supply, how most addicts don’t go looking for this drug, and how many users end up getting it in their system anyway, almost always without knowing.

Research shows winter is the worst season for drug overdoses in states where the temps drop and snow sets in. Cold weather, social isolation, hampered travel, slower emergency response times, and other factors all make this season more dangerous for drug users. All of those factors combined increase the urgency for those who struggle with drug addiction to enter qualified residential drug treatment centers as soon as possible.

In recent breaking news, a woman who bought kratom supplements died from taking them, and a jury in a wrongful death lawsuit ordered the supplement company to pay the woman’s family $11 million. While awareness around kratom has gone a long way from the initial perception of the drug as a safe alternative to opioids, more work is needed to educate the public on the risks people face when they use kratom.

The article explores the widespread use of Narcan (naloxone) to reverse opioid overdoses, covering its history, availability, and brand names. A little-known concern about the use of Narcan is that its effects are short-lived, potentially allowing overdose symptoms to return.

There’s much discussion about saving lives from drugs. But what would it take? It’s time to take a good hard look at the steps that would have to be taken to bring about a drug-free nation. The various fronts on which this battle would need to be fought are reviewed and evaluated.

The article discusses the emergence of a new category of drugs known as nitazenes in the illicit market, part of the larger class of novel synthetic opioids (NSOs). These drugs are just the latest synthetic opioids to be manufactured and distributed in Europe and North America.

Tens of thousands of American medical practitioners are licensed to dispense buprenorphine formulas to those in addiction recovery. But is providing this medication enough? Shouldn’t there be solutions for the loss of emotional, thinking, and social skills? We take a thorough look at this important topic.

Which drugs are being used more frequently by employed Americans? Are the trends in workplace drug use increasing or decreasing? This review of workplace drug tests from Quest Diagnostics tells employers what they need to know.

Florida’s CORE Pilot Program offers immediate support to overdose survivors. In this program, first responders will bypass conventional emergency facilities and take the survivor to a specialized facility for stabilization and immediate referral to a drug rehabilitation service. The program offers a more certain path to breaking the cycle of addiction and reducing the risk of future overdoses.

After several years of being plagued by fentanyl deaths, new synthetic opioids are moving into the American illicit drug market. As seizures of these drugs and overdose deaths mount, it's possible to detect the brief life cycle of these drugs, where one new synthetic opioid quickly replaces the last one that was taking lives.

Recently, the United States White House officially labeled xylazine-tainted fentanyl strains as an “emerging threat” in the United States, which means it is a problem that, although not fully developed, is still a critical issue...

A new research paper published by the CDC tracked a 300% increase in overdose deaths caused by fentanyl between 2016 and 2021. According to the study’s authors, this is the single sharpest increase in drug-related deaths in such a short amount of time since America’s addiction epidemic began in the early 2000s.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released their provisional count for fatal overdoses in 2022, highlighting that about 6,000 fewer Americans died from drugs in 2022 than in 2021. If the provisional figures are accurate, 2022 will represent the first year that drug-related fatalities dropped since 2018.

Xylazine, a mind-altering animal tranquilizer once thought only rarely used in the U.S., has become so popular in some parts of the country that it has a slang name. It’s called “tranq dope.” In almost all cases, it’s mixed with fentanyl. What happens when an animal tranquilizer is mixed with America’s most potent opioid?

Researchers are developing a pain relief method that targets adrenaline receptors rather than opioid receptors. The goal is to produce a pain reliever as effective as opioid painkillers but without harmful side effects and addiction risk.

New synthetic drugs are the wave of the future—and the present. Every year, a long list of new drugs is detected by law enforcement. Buyers may not even know what they are getting as these new substances may be camouflaged. This ignorance can result in their death.

The CDC’s 2016 opioid prescribing guidelines were important because they advocated caution and a conservative approach to prescribing. But in November 2022, the CDC updated its recommendations, softening its guidelines for doctors prescribing oxycodone and other painkillers.

A survey published by Orlando Health showed that 68% of Americans would be willing to try alternatives to opioids for post-surgery pain. Given that opioid prescriptions are one of the most common ways Americans become addicted to drugs, these findings suggest medical institutions should put in more effort to make alternatives to pain relief available to patients.

During the pandemic, admissions to addiction treatment centers dropped by about 25%. That same year, fatal drug overdoses hit the highest year-over-year increase ever recorded, a 30% spike according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These findings suggest that having access to drug rehab is truly lifesaving.

Even as opioid prescribing rates decline, a few thousand doctors are still responsible for the significant overprescribing of opioids to the broader public. With that in mind, the American people will not overcome the opioid epidemic until all doctors and prescribers agree to adopt more conservative, cautious prescribing guidelines as outlined by the CDC.

Since 2019, there have been 171 verified overdoses in Michigan that were traced back to a non-opioid animal tranquilizer called xylazine. That number is likely an undercount, but it is the most recent number Michigan toxicologists have published. Often without addicts knowing, drug dealers lace the tranquilizer into other drugs to create an extended high. Unfortunately, combining xylazine with other drugs increases users' risk for an overdose.

From Appalachian wastewater to the Puget Sound, California groundwater to rivers and streams, scientists across the nation have begun detecting trace elements of opioids in water supplies. The presence of opioids in the water could harm individuals who do not want to have any opioids in their bodies and who have a right not to have their bodies influenced by such chemicals. Further, the findings have alarming implications for wildlife if fish, mussels, and other marine life now must evolve to adjust to increased levels of opioid chemicals in the water.

A recent study found that 75% of people who come forward and seek addiction treatment are hooked on more than one drug at the time of entry into a treatment facility. Given that most addicts use more than one drug, an effective public health response may be to shift away from focusing on the types of drugs being used and instead focus on the people using them.

New research has chronicled the alarming rise in methamphetamine-related deaths over the last few years. In the findings, analysts were able to identify where in the U.S., meth-related deaths have been occurring the most. The overwhelming majority of them are happening in rural counties across America. So what has caused the spike in rural methamphetamine overdoses?

Every state in the nation has felt the hardship of the opioid addiction crisis. But no state has been hit harder than West Virginia, where several factors came together to create the worst drug problem the nation has seen in decades.

In 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a set of prescribing guidelines, written in a way to encourage doctors to curb excessive opioid prescribing. The guidelines were somewhat effective, and overall prescribing trends did recede. However, recent data shows that another small but critical change to the prescribing guidelines could significantly reduce opioid addiction and overdose in the United States.

One of the crucial components in reducing drug experimentation and addiction is ensuring people do not have easy access to drugs. To that point, prescription drug take-back programs may be one of America's best efforts for reducing youth exposure to addictive pharmaceuticals.

While the entire world experienced a drop in human life expectancy in the last two years, the drop in the United States was much more pronounced than the global average, leading many experts to believe overdose deaths had an alarming effect on American mortality rates.

Though it is not often mentioned by the media, there is a broader economic cost to the national public health emergency of drug and alcohol addiction. Addiction is expensive, not just for addicts, but for all Americans. Conversely, solving America’s addiction epidemic and returning millions of recovering addicts to the workforce would benefit the economy.

New research shows that adolescent Americans, who had been experiencing a drop in drug use for part of the 21st century, saw their overdose death rate double in just one year, 2020. Experts believe that the recent spike in teen overdose deaths have been driven almost entirely by fentanyl overdoses.

In 2020, Oregon passed decriminalization legislation to reduce the harmful effects of the addiction-to-prison pipeline and the failed war on drugs. However, new data shows that the implementation of the state’s program fell short of properly incentivizing addicts to seek treatment. The result was a less effective plan than intended and addicts continuing to use drugs.

Researchers at the University of New England found that the rate of opioid-related cardiac arrests has risen dramatically and is now on par with the rate of cardiac arrest from other causes. The research sheds light on yet another major health risk connected to opioid addiction, i.e., the risk for suffering a potentially fatal heart complication.

New information shows that young people are increasingly overdosing on prescription drugs, namely psychotropic medications such as benzodiazepines and prescription stimulants.

When prescription drug abuse really began to take off in the U.S., causing unprecedented deaths and destruction, many Americans chose to blame the pharmaceutical companies which made the drugs. And this was the right place to lay the blame, or at least most of it.

Nitazenes are a new type of opioid drug said to be 800 times more potent than morphine and 40 times more potent than fentanyl. This drug has not yet been approved for human consumption in the U.S., and it is not FDA approved. But could nitazenes become the next “super opioid” to hit the streets?

Addiction is such a pervasive problem in America that one in eight Americans suffer from this problem. Grasping the extent of the problem is a vital first step to resolving it successfully.

Tianeptine is a relatively new pharmaceutical drug that is being misused for its mind-altering properties, leading to overdoses and harsh consequences. Given the harmful nature of drug abuse and the growing addiction crisis across America, it’s important to stay on top of emerging drug trends like tianeptine abuse and addiction.