Category: Drugs & Drink,

Fentanyl deaths skyrocketed more than 1,000% over six years in the US. Here’s who it’s killing

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

A National Center for Health Statistics report released in December found fentanyl to be the drug mostly commonly involved in overdose deaths. In 2016, the drug was responsible for nearly 29% of all drug overdose deaths, making it the deadliest drug in America.

…And while there were increases in fentanyl-related fatalities in all age groups, the largest rate increases were among younger adults between the ages of 15 and 34. The rate of 15- to 24-year-olds who died from fentanyl overdoses increased about 94% each year between 2011 and 2016, and about 100% each year for 25- to 34-year-olds.

Researchers also found that while whites had the highest overall rates of fentanyl fatalities, death rates among blacks and Hispanics were growing faster. Between 2011 and 2016, blacks had fentanyl death rates increase 140.6% annually and Hispanics had an increase of 118.3% annually.

Fentanyl deaths skyrocketed more than 1,000% over six years in the US. Here’s who it’s killing – CNN

hmmm

Rolled joints for aching joints: More seniors use marijuana

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

Relatively little scientific study has verified the benefits of marijuana for specific problems. There’s evidence pot can relieve chronic pain in adults, according to a 2017 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, but the study also concluded that the lack of scientific information poses a risk to public health.

At Bud and Bloom, winners of the bingo games take home new vape pens, but Atkin isn’t really there for that. He’s been coming regularly for two years to buy cannabis-infused chocolate bars and sublingual drops to treat his painful spinal stenosis since the prescription opiates he had been taking quit working.

Rolled joints for aching joints: More seniors use marijuana – silive.com

Sackler Family’s Donation To British Museum Is Quashed Over Opioid Fallout

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

The Sackler family owns Purdue Pharma, the company that has made billions of dollars off of OxyContin and is accused of pressuring doctors to prescribe the opioid while also misleading the public about its dangerous addictive qualities.

“The Sacklers are major donors to museums, galleries and theaters in the U.S. and Europe,” NPR’s Elizabeth Blair reports. “Artists and activists are putting pressure on those institutions to stop taking their money.”

Purdue Pharma has previously admitted to committing a felony and paid millions of dollars in fines, and it’s currently facing numerous lawsuits. But one suit in particular, from Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, seeks to implicate eight members of the Sackler family, accusing them of trying to maximize their profits even as they knew the painkiller was causing deadly overdoses.

…Oxycodone — the semi-synthetic opiate whose forms include OxyContin and other brand names — was the No. 1 cause of overdose deaths in 2011, in cases where at least one specific drug was mentioned. Since then, heroin and fentanyl have become the top overdose threats in the ongoing opioid crisis. But through at least 2016, oxycodone’s overdose rate also rose slightly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sackler Family’s Donation To British Museum Is Quashed Over Opioid Fallout : NPR

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Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,Leave a comment

The lawmakers say that unless people of color are guaranteed a share of the potentially $3 billion industry, there may be no legalization this year. They want to be assured that some of that money will go toward job training programs, and that minority entrepreneurs will receive licenses to cultivate or sell the marijuana.

…They say one misstep, in particular, stands out: None of the 10 states or Washington ensured that minority communities would share in any economic windfall of legalization — missing out on an opportunity to redress years of having a disproportionate number of African-Americans arrested on marijuana charges.

…Critics say marijuana legalization has fostered an inequitable system in which wealthy, white investors often reap the profits of the fledgling industry.

In Colorado, black entrepreneurs said they were banned from winning licenses because of marijuana-related convictions. Black people make up just a handful of the thousands of cultivation or dispensary license holders there, and continue to be arrested on marijuana-related charges at almost three times the rate of white people.

In California, several cities introduced equity programs retroactively. Oakland now requires at least half of licenses to go to people with a cannabis-related conviction and who fell below an income threshold.

…Ms. Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat who represents a district that includes Buffalo. She has introduced her own bill, which directs half of all marijuana revenue to a community fund supporting job training, and prioritizes licenses for people from communities most affected by criminalization.

…That concern has made itself so clear that the New York Medical Cannabis Industry Association, worried that legislators might seek to shut them out of the new industry, sent a letter to Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday promising to set up a $25 million “Cannabis Economic Opportunity Fund” to provide zero-interest loans to companies led by women and people of color.

…The City Council’s Progressive Caucus and the Black Latino and Asian Caucus recently introduced laws and resolutions calling for the city to have local control over home delivery and cultivation of marijuana, potentially allowing smaller businesses to share in the sales.

“Not arresting people is not good enough,” Donovan Richards, a city councilman from Queens, said. “Economic justice must be served.”

Black Lawmakers to Block Legalized Marijuana in N.Y. if Their Communities Don’t Benefit – The New York Times

 

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Missouri police search cancer patient’s hospital room for marijuana

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

A Missouri police department has faced backlash after a video posted to social media Wednesday showed officers searching for marijuana in the belongings of a cancer patient in a hospital room.

…The video also shows police saying they received a call reporting marijuana in the room; one officer says he can smell pot. 

Sousley bristles at the allegation, saying, “And there is no way they could smell it, doc, because I don’t smoke it, I don’t ever use a ground-up plant. It’s an oil I use in a capsule, there’s no smoking it. I take it like a pill.”

……Bolivar Police Chief Mark Webb told the News-Leader that the social media backlash has included threats against police and a deluge of questions that the department was unable to keep up with.

Missouri police search cancer patient’s hospital room for marijuana

Jeezus….

Wisconsin governor announces proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession, legalize medical use

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

“People shouldn’t be treated as criminals for accessing a desperately-needed medication that can alleviate their suffering.”

But Evers also made it clear that this proposal is not strictly to respond to health care concerns. He also pointed to the inequities in the arrests of minorities for drug-related crimes.

“Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country for black men, and drug-related crimes account for as many as 75-85 percent of all inmates in our prisons,” Evers said in a press release.

…President Donald Trump paved the way for the trendy oil after he signed a farm bill in December — removing industrial hemp from a list of federally controlled substances. This legislation became a major step in pushing the oil into mainstream use.

Wisconsin governor announces proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession, legalize medical use

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States with Legal Marijuana See 25 Percent Fewer Prescription Painkiller

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

In states with laws legalizing medical marijuana, new research shows there are nearly 25 percent fewer deaths from painkiller overdoses.

…Although a causal relationship hasn’t been proven, there appears to be a significant association between marijuana legislation and a fall in overdose deaths.

…1.5 billion people worldwide suffer from chronic pain. Opioid painkillers have long been an option for treating that pain, but their use comes with an inherent risk of addiction and death from an overdose. Chronic pain is also a major driver of medical cannabis use, which is why the researchers wanted to see whether medical marijuana laws and deaths from opioid overdoses were linked at the state level.

States with Legal Marijuana See 25 Percent Fewer Prescription Painkiller

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Living in a cold, dark climate linked to heavy drinking. Or not.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,, Europe,Leave a comment

One expert attending, Prof Jurgen Rehm from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, cast doubt on any link between temperature, light and alcohol consumption.

He told BBC Scotland that research in Europe had found the highest rates of alcohol consumption and harm in a central belt of countries such as Ireland, the UK, Germany and Poland.

Lower alcohol use was found in countries to the north – such as Norway, Sweden and Finland – and further south in places like Italy, Malta and Greece.

He said: “Basically, we have found within Europe that this correlation that has been found in another study globally, plays no role.”

Living in a cold, dark climate linked to heavy drinking – BBC News

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Brett Kavanaugh Says ‘We’re Loud, Obnoxious Drunks’ In 1983 Letter

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Drugs & Drink,Leave a comment

In a 1983 letter published by The New York Times on Tuesday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh suggests that he and his friends should warn the neighbors that they are “obnoxious drunks” prior to their “Beach Week” trip.

The Times, which reviewed a copy of the handwritten note, reported that Kavanaugh acknowledged the letter was his.

Brett Kavanaugh Says ‘We’re Loud, Obnoxious Drunks’ In 1983 Letter | HuffPost

sigh….

Patients dying in drug addiction treatment centers

On By peanutgallerynhIn Addiction,, Drugs & Drink,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Patients who are undergoing withdrawal and trying to stay clean are particularly vulnerable to medical emergencies. As the opioid epidemic causes demand for addiction treatment to surge, industry veterans say tougher standards, better screening and greater oversight are needed to improve patient safety.

….During her nearly three days at an Arizona drug detox center, law enforcement reports show, an Ohio mother repeated the same request to multiple staff members: Take me to the hospital.

…She had trouble breathing. Her pulse raced. She was wheezing, and her lungs sounded “crackly,” staff members told investigators.

She appeared lethargic and ill. One technician told investigators her complexion was jaundiced, and her lips were purple. Another said she went from pale to yellow to blue.

…But she was not sent to the full-service hospital located less than a mile away. Instead, she collapsed in her room at Serenity, and was soon pronounced dead.

…When Shaun Reyna contacted a Murrieta, California, treatment center in 2013, he was told he would receive a medical detoxification, an attorney for the family said in a lawsuit.

Reyna, battling alcohol and benzodiazepene addiction, was desperate for help, attorney Jeremiah Lowe says.  

…He was admitted, and left unattended in his room. He slashed his arm, chest and neck with a razor and bled to death. 

…Cody Arbuckle died at a Las Vegas addiction treatment facility owned by AAC last July. A coroner listed the cause as toxicity from loperamide, an ingredient in the anti-diarrhea drug Imodium A-D.

…Staff at the Solutions Recovery house reported that Arbuckle was under the influence of drugs. But rather than transporting him to a hospital, they say in a lawsuit, they sent him to a “non-medical residential detoxification house” in Las Vegas. 

Arbuckle was supposed to be under 24-hour monitoring, the lawyers say in the lawsuit, but he was not checked over 14 hours overnight. He was found dead the following morning. 

The lawyers say in the lawsuit that AAC kept Arbuckle “in their non-medical program for business reasons, because they did not want to let go of their paying client.”

He became the seventh patient who died shortly after entering an AAC facility, the attorneys say in the lawsuit. 

Patients dying in drug addiction treatment centers

sigh….