Read more about the article Fake Oxycontin is Killing People

Fake Oxycontin is Killing People

Fake Oxycontin is a big trend on the streets in America, and investigators in Minnesota say they’re the cause of fatal overdoses. Usually, they’re laced with fentanyl, which can be fifty to a hundred times as potent than morphine.

Fake But Deadly

In St. Cloud, Minnesota, a recent overdose came from fentanyl marketed on the street as Oxycontin. Some fentanyl has also been passed off to be Oxycodone or Percocet. It’s a nationwide trend in recent months, as drug traffic has stalled at the border during a national pandemic.

The pills are made to look like the real pill, although some have a blueish tint to them. One side of the tablet is blue with the “M” stamped on one side and “30” stamped on the other.

Last month, a Sacramento resident was caught with over 1,000 pills of what …

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Read more about the article FDA Adds Naloxone Info to Opioid Scripts

FDA Adds Naloxone Info to Opioid Scripts

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  • Reading time:3 mins read

The Food and Drug Administration announced a new requirement for drugmakers to help inform consumers about naloxone. Naloxone is a drug that helps reverse opioid and other drug overdoses. The new rule means that every prescription drug containing opioids will now include information about naloxone.

The naloxone notice is just one small thing that they’re hoping will help people stay alive during the pandemic. People who are abusing opioids may not be aware that it’s an option. Many people are isolated from other drug users and staying home during the pandemic.

Overdoses Are Increasing During Pandemic

Drug overdoses are multiplying quickly during the age of COVID-19, and numbers of deaths were higher than ever in 2019 before the pandemic even touched American lives.

Public health officials have warned the public and doctors to expect significant increases in “deaths of …

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Read more about the article AMA Says Opioid Crisis Worsened By COVID-19

AMA Says Opioid Crisis Worsened By COVID-19

The American Medical Association put out an article this week about the opioid epidemic. Just like other public health crises, opioid addiction seems to be on the backburner. Yet people who are addicted to opioids are more vulnerable to COVID-19.

In many places, both the COVID-19 crisis and the opioid epidemic are currently both causing casualties. In the state of Illinois, DuPage County has suffered 315 deaths so far this year from the novel coronavirus. But the agency also reports that there have been 303 overdoses reported in the Emergency Room this year.

Last year, 96 people overdosed on opioids. But the numbers are growing for 2020. For three weeks between April and May, the county experienced 22 fatal overdoses.

Fewer Resources For Addicted During COVID-19

Many of the people who overdosed in Dupage County were alone and practicing social …

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Read more about the article Research Proves Opioid Agonists Prevent OD’s and Relapse

Research Proves Opioid Agonists Prevent OD’s and Relapse

Using Medication-Assisted Treatment once carried stigma in the recovery community. However, recent research has shown how much these aspects of treatment can save lives. Opioid agonists keep people from relapse and overdose death.

Many people have a lack of understanding about why the drug is useful or how it helps people begin the path to recovery. This stigma can keep people from getting the help they need to stay clean and sober. This is a big gap in the recovery world, unfortunately. A lack of MAT options could mean the difference in recovery versus relapse. Researchers say that one group of MAT options, opioid antagonists, are especially effective when used by people new to recovery.

What Are Opioid Agonists?

Opioid agonists help people with heroin or prescription opioid use disorder abstain from those drugs. In recovery, doctors may prescribe these …

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Read more about the article Does the Dental Industry Has an Opioid Script Problem?

Does the Dental Industry Has an Opioid Script Problem?

Recent studies show that the dental industry in America may be an essential link in the addiction crisis, with nearly half of dental prescriptions exceeding prescription guidelines for acute pain management.

The research, published today in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, covered a five-year study period of dental prescriptions.

What Do the Numbers Say?

Dentists are a vital component in addiction prevention that has often been overlooked in research studies. However, the dental industry is responsible for 10% of all opioid prescriptions in the United States. Yet, in three out of ten prescriptions, dentists prescribed a more powerful opioid than necessary following painful procedures. And the prescriptions were typically for longer than three days, which is the current opioid prescription guideline for acute surgery pain.

For the study, the researchers analyzed data on nearly 550,000 dental visits by …

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Read more about the article Oxycontin Makers Sink Claws Into China

Oxycontin Makers Sink Claws Into China

A report has come out detailing the marketing moves that Purdue Pharma, the drugmaker responsible for Oxycontin and other variations of opioid, has moved on to China. Of course, it’s no big secret that companies like food and pharmaceutical makers take their wares overseas to new markets.

What’s unusual about Purdue’s business moves is that the behavior that cost billions of dollars in US lawsuits is now being deployed in China.

Boosting Sales and Breaking Laws in China

Stat News claims that when sales began to crash due to the opioid crisis, the Sacklers and their subsidiaries set their eyes on the global market. In China, Purdue’s international pharma dealer, Mundipharma, pushed for profits over ethics without fail. While the profit scheme unraveled very publicly in the US courts, quietly, Purdue Pharma began marketing elsewhere.

Current and former employees told …

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Read more about the article Did Abuse-Deterrent Oxy Work? Purdue Won’t Say

Did Abuse-Deterrent Oxy Work? Purdue Won’t Say

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  • Post category:big pharma
  • Reading time:2 mins read

In 2010, a reformulated version of Oxycontin was released. The pharma giant, Perdue Pharma, said the new formula would help deter abuse. The new version of the pill couldn’t be crushed, snorted or smoked. This change was expected to make it more difficult for drug abusers to misuse it. It’s been nine years since the different drug formula went into effect, and neither the government nor Purdue Pharma will release information to the public on results.

“We asked for that data probably 40 or 50 times in last four or five years and were denied every time,” Dr. Raeford Brown, whose term as an FDA adviser ended last March, recently told the Washington Post. The committee she served on is still waiting to get the numbers from either the FDA or Purdue.

New Oxy Formula May Have Caused Other Public

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Read more about the article Italy Starts its Own Oxycontin Probe

Italy Starts its Own Oxycontin Probe

In Italy, a peculiar rise in opioid prescriptions brought suspicion against Perdue Pharmaceuticals and a doctor named Guido Fanelli. Authorities began to suspect a conspiracy among a group of pharmaceutical executives police nicknamed “The Pain League.” Used to fighting corruption and the inner workings of criminal cases such as mob bosses, authorities sought to find culpability within Mundipharma — the international arm of Purdue Pharma. They began an investigation using wiretaps and subpoenas to follow the money.

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxycontin, faces over 2,000 lawsuits in the United States over its role in the opioid crisis. This case is the first known case outside the U.S., where executives and employees of Perdue are criminally charged and implicated. While the opioid epidemic has cost fewer lives in Italy, the criminal intent, prosecutors say, is clear.

Making Money Promoting Opioids

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Protesters Deliver Outgoing FDA Commissioner an 800lb “Heroin Spoon”

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  • Reading time:3 mins read

Protestors descended on the FDA today to mark the end of Scott Gottlieb’s tenure with the delivery of a large “heroin spoon” sculpture stamped with the FDA’s logo. Activists say they are angry that the outgoing commissioner rubber-stamped Dsuvia, an incredibly powerful opioid that is meant for surgeries and late-term terminal cancer.

The group of activists urged the FDA to stop approving “dangerous” opioids and to focus on more ideas for medication-assisted treatment and other drugs to help treat addiction.

Dsuvia is a sublingual formulation of sufentanil, which is 500 times as powerful as morphine. The drugmaker says that the drug was created for the management of acute pain in adults in medically supervised healthcare settings. Activists and addiction specialist believe that the drug will eventually make it onto the street, causing overdose deaths, just like fentanyl. Fentanyl was developed …

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Read more about the article In Delaware, 3000 People Run 5K to Raise Awareness of Addiction

In Delaware, 3000 People Run 5K to Raise Awareness of Addiction

More than 3,000 people rallied, ran and walked in Old New Castle, Delaware last Saturday morning to raise awareness for what organizers say is the public health crisis of this generation. Family members, friends, and people in recovery ran the annual atTAcK Addiction “Erase the Stigma 5K” is an event that attracts people personally affected by addiction.

The annual race was started by parents who lost (or almost lost) their children to opioid overdose. They bonded and created a nonprofit to combat opioid abuse and addiction in Delaware. Their grassroots nonprofit helps to educate people about addiction in the community. They have a special high school just for students in recovery from addiction and they also provide addiction-related services such as support groups.

AtTAcK Addiction provides services directly to people who are looking for safe sober housing. Their 5K has …

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