fentanyl

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

The Newest Halloween Scare – Rainbow Fentanyl

Every year around the middle of October, reporters start contacting me wanting to talk about rumors of contaminated Halloween treats. That’s because I track media coverage of reported incidents of trick-or-treaters receiving razor blades in apples or pins and poison in candy bars. My data goes back to 1958, and my principal finding is simple: I can’t find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating. This often surprises people who assume that Halloween sadism is both very real and very common. Stories about contaminated treats are best understood as contemporary legends. They’re tales we’ve all heard, that we’ve been assured are true. They warn that we live in a dangerous world filled with vil...

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, IN OTHER NEWS

A Medical Toxicologist Explains: What Fentanyl Is And Why Is It Behind The Deadly Surge In US Drug Overdoses?

Buying drugs on the street is a game of Russian roulette. From Xanax to cocaine, drugs or counterfeit pills purchased in nonmedical settings may contain life-threatening amounts of fentanyl. Physicians like me have seen a rise in unintentional fentanyl use from people buying prescription opioids and other drugs laced, or adulterated, with fentanyl. Heroin users in my community in Massachusetts came to realize that fentanyl had entered the drug supply when overdose numbers exploded. In 2016, my colleagues and I found that patients who came to the emergency department reporting a heroin overdose often only had fentanyl present in their drug test results. As the Chief of Medical Toxicology at UMass Chan Medical School, I have studied fentanyl and its analogs for years. As fentanyl has becom...

Fueled By The Pandemic Fentanyl Spread Across The US And Drove Opioid Overdose Deaths To A Grim New High

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, IN OTHER NEWS

Fueled By The Pandemic Fentanyl Spread Across The US And Drove Opioid Overdose Deaths To A Grim New High

Andrew Kolodny, Brandeis University For the past 20 years, I have been engaged in efforts to end the opioid epidemic, as a public health official, researcher and clinician. And for every one of those years I have looked on as the number of deaths from drug overdoses has set a new record high. Yet even knowing that trend I was surprised by the latest tally from the CDC showing that for the first time ever, the number of Americans who fatally overdosed over the course of a year surpassed 100,000. In a 12-month period ending at the end of April 2021, some 100,306 died in the U.S., up 28.5% over the same period a year earlier. The soaring death toll has been fueled by a much more dangerous black market opioid supply. Illicitly synthesized fentanyl – a potent and inexpensive opioid that has ...

19Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Georgia Couple Arrested for Allegedly Distributing Fentanyl on the Dark Web

Around 50,000 pills containing fentanyl were recently seized by a local task force in Cherokee County, Georgia in a major drug bust. The operation involved the arrest of a couple who authorities believe were pressing and distributing the pills from their home in Woodstock. Frederick Michelsen, 35, together with Elizabeth Ashley Michelsen, 28, were apprehended for their alleged role in a drug operation on the dark web. The Cherokee Country Sheriff’s Office said that agents found a pound of marijuana, 14 grams of heroin, 50,000 pills assumed to contain fentanyl and Xanax, and an ounce of cocaine. Month-Long Investigation Members of the Cherokee Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad were able to get trustworthy information that the Michelsens were involved in the manufacturing and distribution...