The steady increase in opioid overdose deaths across the U.S.—which more than doubled among teens in just two years—has heightened debate over the role of naloxone in the front lines of American addiction
, has sharply reduced heroin supply. With less heroin available, demand for fentanyl—a cheap, potent replacement for other opioids—has risen.
Then, “there’s an enormous market of counterfeit pills,” Hadland says. A crackdown on opioid prescribing made it harder to get real prescription pills just as fentanyl became easy to produce and import into the U.S. Often when teens think they’re buying oxycodone, Xanax or even Adderall, they’re buying a fake pill made with fentanyl. Young people are less likely to have built up a tolerance through prior opioid use, so they’re particularly at-risk for overdosing.
The final issue is contamination when dealers prepare or manufacture drugs on the same surfaces used for fentanyl. Tiny amounts of fentanyl contamination can lead to an overdose, especially in people intending to use cocaine, MDMA or methamphetamine who haven’t built up a tolerance.
Key to reducing opioid overdose deaths, then, is ensuring wide accessibility to naloxone, particularly for those who use drugs and their friends and family. If students have to ask the school nurse for naloxone, it’s less useful than if it were available for free in vending machines, as
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ugly American: Stanford University determines ‘American’ is now a ‘harmful’ termThe word “American” is one of dozens on the chopping block under Stanford University’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative, launched in May by the Stanford IT Department to eradicate “racist, violent and biased” language in websites and code.
Read more »
Stanford locks 'harmful language' guide which cautioned calling US citizens 'American': 'missed the mark'Stanford University made locked a 'harmful language' guide and made it accessible to only people with a school login after it received backlash,
Read more »
Kirin seeks more North American craft beer factories after strong growthKirin Holdings , Japan's second-largest brewer, is looking to buy factory facilities in North America to maintain strong growth in the region's craft beer market, its chief executive said.
Read more »
Best Classic American Cars to RestoreThese 9 classic American cars are the perfect candidates for restoration with just the right combination of style, power, popularity, and affordability.
Read more »
Non-Americans Are Sharing 'Normal' American Things That Are Actually Totally Weird Elsewhere'I was in the US the first time ever a couple of weeks ago and it blew my mind. I wish I could have brought some back home with me.'
Read more »
Ken DeLand: American college student's disappearance in Europe 'still a blur,' family saysKenneth DeLand, the upstate New York college student who had been missing in France since Nov. 28, was found to be alive in Spain after spotting himself in media reports.
Read more »