The measure, which needs a majority to pass, is called the Secure the #Border Act. Along w/the #policing provisions, it’d also increase #prison sentences for anyone who sells #fentanyl* that results in an #overdose death, & would make it a #state#crime for #undocumented workers to provide false info to the #EVerify screening system.
People in Baltimore have been dying of overdoses at a rate never before seen in a major American city.
The city was once hailed for its response to #addiction. But as #fentanyl flooded streets & ofcls shifted priorities, deaths hit unprecedented heights.
Isabelle Easton, director of campaigns and community relations for the students’ society, said the group is looking into having #MandatoryTraining for all students during orientation at #UVic, in partnership with university administration.
"For Sidney’s parents, the loss is all-consuming. They’ve spent more than three months piecing together the final minutes of her life." —Lori Culbert for The Vancouver Sun
Earlier this month, the #Canadian#Medical Association Journal published a study that said nationally, the annual number of #opioid#overdose deaths doubled between 2019 to 2021. Dr. #GaborMaté, an #addiction expert, says the link between addiction and #trauma is a #ScientificFact. With that in mind, he says ‘it is not accidental’ that #Indigenous populations in #Canada are at a #HigherRisk of developing addictions.
Here's what happened to overdose deaths in Toronto neighbourhoods with safe consumption sites
"The effect was so immense that you saw two-thirds reduction in mortality and that it was so spread out geographically, you know, which was pretty amazing... From a public health perspective, that's a good thing."
NEW: 2023 Is San Francisco’s Deadliest Year on Record for Drug Overdoses
Last Thursday San Francisco’s chief medical examiner released the city’s updated overdose death count — 752 so far — making 2023 the worst year on record for drug-related fatalities.
As fatal overdoses swelled, so did cases involving fentanyl, which was a factor in more than 81% of overdose deaths this year. That statistic is up from 70% in 2022, and 74% in 2021.
Nearly one-third of those people were listed as having no fixed address. Later that day, a crowd gathered at Civic Center Plaza to remember more than 420 who died in the city while experiencing homelessness this year.
"From January through November of this year, America’s Poison Centers reported almost 3,000 calls involving semaglutide, an increase of more than 1,500% since 2019.
"And most of the calls were related to dosage errors: 'Often times, it’s a person who maybe accidentally took a double dose or took the wrong dose,' Dr. Kait Brown, clinical managing director of the association, told CNN."
Today, a young American woman between the ages of 25 and 34 face higher mortality rates than at any other point in more than 50 years. And had the mortality rate remained flat between 2000 and 2021, nearly 40,000 young women would not have died.
~Sara Srygley of PRB
"My brother overdosed alone. He thought he was taking Percocet, but it was laced with fentanyl. He was twenty-seven." —James McNaughton on the death of his brother Conor, for Guernica Magazine
NEW: San Francisco is experiencing two drug-related deaths a day. Now the city has promised to clean up the streets with an old, familiar strategy – police crackdowns. Critics say it’s a return to the failed war on drugs.
"There are increased turf wars that are occurring because you have a raid here, and another group moves in. I mean, we’ve had gunfire and a murder during the middle of the day." - Dean Preston at a San Francisco Drug Users Union rally.
"It feels like the police are allowing this to happen, and then when they feel like it, they swoop in and pick people up, and we’re not really solving the problem." - Alexandra Pray with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.
"Until some other entity, other than the police department, deals with this issue, it really doesn’t leave us with much of a choice." - Police Chief Bill Scott.
"The abiding belief that alive is better than clean was what led to Never Use Alone." —For Slate, Aymann Ismail and Mary Harris follow a safe-use hotline operator.
Researchers use stem cells to generate human neurons resembling those in the brain that control breathing during opioid reactions, for eventual chip devices to test overdose therapies.
324 mennesker døde av overdose i Norge i 2021, det høyeste antallet på 20 år. Norge har lenge vært en versting på dette, og det er utrolig tragisk. Spesielt med tanke på hvor meningsløst det er, og hvor lett det hadde vært å endre, om vi bare ga hjelp istedenfor straff!
I dag er verdens overdosedag, og Foreningen Tryggere Ruspolitikk og Chemfriendly holder en debatt med alle partiene i Oslo på Blå nå.
NEW PAPER! "GenomeMUSter mouse genetic variation service enables multi-trait, multi-population data integration and analyses" from my colleages at The Jackson Laboratory where I am interning this summer 🌞
This is a HUGE meta-analysis of genetic research in mice (#GRCm38) with a new searchable interface for #genetics researchers
Something I really love about my #dataviz work at JAX is that it helps communicate the tremendous amount of variation in responses to substances like cocaine, nicotine, and alcohol, which tells us 1) the data supports a compassionate approach to #addiction, given the substantial association of genetic determinants to disease-related traits like habit formation, #overdose risk, and #withdrawal, and 2) we shouldn't be using a 'one size fits all' mental model when interpreting disease phenotypes 💙
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued new regulatory guidance for clinical trials of medical devices designed to prevent or treat opioid use disorder.
Tranq Dope Deaths In the U.S. Are Skyrocketing (www.vice.com)
Overdoses linked to tranq, the street drug that can cause horrific wounds, have spiked 276 percent, according to the CDC.