fentanyl
As opioids overdose deaths keep rising, report urges lawmakers to develop new approaches
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers should view America’s staggering opioid crisis, including the rise of illicit fentanyl, through an “ecosystems” approach, argues a massive RAND Corporation report published Thursday. That means they should examine the gaps and interconnections among emergency response, data collection, education, treatment, housing and law enforcement, the report advises. The 600-page volume — which the authors […]
Funding needed to curb fentanyl smuggling at ports of entry, administration officials say
WASHINGTON — Biden administration officials at a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday on the deadly illicit drug fentanyl said they need more money for better screening technology at ports of entry at the Southern border. They also said the U.S. needs to keep pressure on China due to its role in the sale of chemicals used […]
U.S. House GOP takes aim at fake pills containing deadly fentanyl sold on social media
WASHINGTON — On a June 2020 morning, Amy Neville entered her son’s bedroom to wake him for an orthodontist appointment. Fourteen-year-old Alex didn’t wake up. He died of fentanyl poisoning after taking a counterfeit pill he bought from someone he met on Snapchat, Neville told GOP lawmakers Wednesday during a roundtable discussion of the role […]
Measure decriminalizing fentanyl testing strips headed for Ohio House floor
An Ohio House committee has given the go-ahead to a measure decriminalizing the possession of fentanyl testing strips. Current law classifies test strips as drug paraphernalia. The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. Kristin Boggs, D-Columbus, described the change as “one more avenue” to avoid overdose when she introduced the bill in May. Many people would test […]
New Ohio bill would decriminalize fentanyl drug testing strips
The following article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and is published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content-sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication by other news outlets as it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland. Thousands of Ohioans die every year from overdosing on drugs, and […]
Assessing J.D. Vance’s border plans
In his first campaign ad of this year’s raucous Senate primary, J.D. Vance stands in a park, a row of homes slightly out of focus behind him, and he looks straight into the camera. “Are you a racist?” he asks, pointing at the viewer. “Do you hate Mexicans?” Voting has begun in Ohio’s primary elections. […]
How the pandemic helped spread fentanyl and drive opioid overdose deaths to a grim new high
By 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 […]
OxyContin created the opioid crisis, but stigma and prohibition have fueled it
By Emily B. Campbell, College of the Holy Cross The highly contentious Purdue Pharma settlement announced Sept. 1, 2021, comes at a pivotal time for the U.S. overdose crisis: 2020 was the worst year on record, with over 93,000 Americans losing their lives to fatal drug overdose. The drug overdose epidemic, now more than two […]
Municipalities should embrace their waste
A couple of years ago, I was at a conference at Ohio State’s Moritz School of Law on harm reduction strategies for the opioid crisis. One of the speakers was Dr. Dan Rosenblum, a health economist from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia who specializes in both development economics and illicit drug markets. At this conference […]