#fentanyl tw

[tic-loud-tic-proud]

Nobody is putting "Rainbow fentanyl" in your Halloween candy. This is an urban legend that goes around every single year and every single year it doesn't happen. The DEA is losing America's trust and therefore funding, so they have to come up with these moral panics in order to stay relevant.

If the DEA really wanted to reduce deaths by fentanyl overdose they would make Narcan and fentanyl test strips readily available, but they're not doing that. They still disproportionately place their effort toward marijuana when over 98% of cannabis plants seized by the DEA are growing wild.

Defund the DEA.

[reasonsforhope]

"For the first time in decades, public health data shows a sudden and hopeful drop in drug overdose deaths across the U.S.

"This is exciting," said Dr. Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute On Drug Abuse [NIDA], the federal laboratory charged with studying addiction. "This looks real. This looks very, very real."

National surveys compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already show an unprecedented decline in drug deaths of roughly 10.6 percent. That's a huge reversal from recent years when fatal overdoses regularly increased by double-digit percentages.

Some researchers believe the data will show an even larger decline in drug deaths when federal surveys are updated to reflect improvements being seen at the state level, especially in the eastern U.S.

"In the states that have the most rapid data collection systems, we’re seeing declines of twenty percent, thirty percent," said Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, an expert on street drugs at the University of North Carolina.

According to Dasgupta's analysis, which has sparked discussion among addiction and drug policy experts, the drop in state-level mortality numbers corresponds with similar steep declines in emergency room visits linked to overdoses.

Dasgupta was one of the first researchers to detect the trend. He believes the national decline in street drug deaths is now at least 15 percent and could mean as many as 20,000 fewer fatalities per year.

"Today, I have so much hope"

After years of wrenching drug deaths that seemed all but unstoppable, some researchers, front-line addiction workers, members of law enforcement, and people using street drugs voiced caution about the apparent trend.

Roughly 100,000 deaths are still occurring per year. Street drug cocktails including fentanyl, methamphetamines, xylazine and other synthetic chemicals are more poisonous than ever.

"I think we have to be careful when we get optimistic and see a slight drop in overdose deaths," said Dan Salter, who heads a federal drug interdiction program in the Atlanta-Carolinas region. "The last thing we want to do is spike the ball."

But most public health experts and some people living with addiction told NPR they believe catastrophic increases in drug deaths, which began in 2019, have ended, at least for now. Many said a widespread, meaningful shift appears underway.

"Some of us have learned to deal with the overdoses a lot better," said Kevin Donaldson, who uses fentanyl and xylazine on the street in Burlington, Vermont.

According to Donaldson, many people using fentanyl now carry naloxone, a medication that reverses most opioid overdoses. He said his friends also use street drugs with others nearby, ready to offer aid and support when overdoses occur.

He believes these changes - a response to the increasingly toxic street drug supply - mean more people like himself are surviving.

"For a while we were hearing about [drug deaths] every other day. When was the last one we heard about? Maybe two weeks ago? That's pretty few and far between," he said.

His experience is reflected in data from the Vermont Department of Health, which shows a 22 percent decline in drug deaths in 2024.

"The trends are definitely positive," said Dr. Keith Humphreys, a nationally respected drug policy researcher at Stanford University. "This is going to be the best year we've had since all of this started."

"A year ago when overdose deaths continued to rise, I was really struggling with hope," said Brad Finegood, who directs the overdose crisis response in Seattle.

Deaths in King County, Washington, linked to all drugs have dropped by 15 percent in the first half of 2024. Fatal overdoses caused by street fentanyl have dropped by 20 percent.

"Today, I have so much hope," Finegood said.

-via NPR, September 18, 2024. Article continues below with an exploration of the whys (mostly unknown) and some absolutely fucking incredible statistics.

Why the sudden and hopeful shift? Most experts say it's a mystery

While many people offered theories about why the drop in deaths is happening at unprecedented speed, most experts agreed that the data doesn't yet provide clear answers.

Some pointed to rapid improvements in the availability and affordability of medical treatments for fentanyl addiction. "Expansion of naloxone and medications for opioid use disorder — these strategies worked," said Dr. Volkow at NIDA.

"We've almost tripled the amount of naloxone out in the community," said Finegood. He noted that one survey in the Seattle area found 85 percent of high-risk drug users now carry the overdose-reversal medication.

Dr. Rahul Gupta, the White House drug czar, said the drop in drug deaths shows a path forward.

"This is the largest decrease on record and the fifth consecutive month of recorded decreases," he said.

Gupta called for more funding for addiction treatment and healthcare services, especially in Black and Native American communities where overdose deaths remain catastrophically high.

"There is no way we're going to beat this epidemic by not focusing on communities that are often marginalized, underserved and communities of color," Gupta said.

"Overdose deaths in Ohio are down 31 percent"

Indeed, in many states in the eastern and central U.S. where improvements are largest, the sudden drop in drug deaths stunned some observers who lived through the darkest days of the fentanyl overdose crisis.

"This year overdose deaths [in Ohio] are down 31 percent," said Dennis Couchon, a harm reduction activist. "The deaths were just plummeting. The data has never moved like this."

"While the mortality data for 2024 is incomplete and subject to change, Ohio is now in the ninth consecutive month of a historic and unexpected drop in overdose deaths," said the organization Harm Reduction Ohio in a statement.

Missouri is seeing a similar trend that appears to be accelerating. After dropping by 10 percent last year, preliminary data shows drug deaths in the state have now fallen roughly 34 percent in the second quarter of 2024.

"It absolutely seems things are going in the right direction, and it's something we should feel pleased about," said Dr. Rachel Winograd, director of addiction science at the University of Missouri St. Louis, who also noted that drug deaths remain too high.

"It feels wonderful and great," said Dr. Mark Levine, head of the Vermont Health Department. "We need encouraging data like this and it will help sustain all of us who are actively involved in trying to have an impact here."

Levine, too, said there's still "plenty of work left to do."" ...

Dasgupta, the researcher at the University of North Carolina, agreed more needs to be done to help people in addiction recover when they're ready.

But he said keeping more people alive is a crucial first step that seemed impossible only a year ago.

"A fifteen or twenty percent [drop in deaths] is a really big number, an enormous impact," he said, calling for more research to determine how to keep the trend going.

"If interventions are what's driving this decline, then let's double down on those interventions."

-article via NPR, September 18, 2024

[brokenxheart]

Heroin, Oxymorphone 40 & Oxycontin 80 🖤

[wokstarslush]

[outer-spec]

I am addicted to femtanyl!!!!

[newsfromstolenland]

there's been a spike in fentanyl related overdoses and deaths in york region in ontario which is right by where I live

so in light of that, I just want to give a few reminders:

if you're using, please keep a naloxone kit nearby (you can get them free at most pharmacies)

if possible, get fentanyl test strips, to test your stuff for fentanyl

if you can, having someone nearby that can help administer naloxone, comfort you if you have a bad high, or even just remind you that you're not alone, can be extremely helpful

if there's a supervised/safe consumption site near you, consider making use of it! the people and resources are there to support you, it's okay to engage with them!

most of all, stay safe. stay alive. the world's a better place with you in it.

[batwynn]

Remembering that time when I was five and didn’t even know filters existed—never mind knowing how to stop talking—and I was out with my grandmother (divorced from my grandfather) having a lovely day in a lovely little Maine town in the 90s.

The thing about Maine in the 90s was certain things like smoking weed was illegal across the country and generally frowned upon, but Mainers simply Did Not Care and more than happily grew and smoked pot anyway. The other thing about Maine is most of those Lovely Little Towns are constantly full of out of state tourists coming to buy kitch and eat lobster. These tourists tended to be from states that generally did not have the same attitude about pot as Mainers did. It was still considered a Very Bad Thing To Do.

So when my five year old self saw an older gentleman smoking a classic tobacco pipe amongst a crowd of tourists I remarked, on the top of my lungs, that my grandfather had a pipe too! Not that kind of pipe, though!

There was literally a beat of shocked silence before my grandmother laughed a little too loudly and said something about it being a different color or some nonsense. Of course no one, like, ratted out my five-year-old self and my grandfather out to the police for that. But there were definitely some shocked button-upped folks in that lovely little town that day.

Anyway, that was the one and only time I was a snitch.

[destielmemenews]

source 1

source 2

[dougielombax]

“It’s alright. It’s not like he was buying cocaine or fentanyl!”

Kid Named Fentanyl:

*otherworldly trumpet noises start playing randomly at irregular intervals*

[ractna]

Ace Attorney : “Atroquinine is a man-made poison lethal at 0.002 mg”

Me, out loud in a public setting: Oh my god It’s fentanyl

[compassionatereminders]

it’s also just about simple size — stuff like fentanyl vs. morphine work by equivalency. so in the hospital a dose of fentanyl may technically be a lower number, like a microgram amount, but it’s on the same equivalency as a standard dose of 4mg of morphine. that’s why cops are full of shit claiming this small amount will kill most people, they give those in medicinal doses. it simply saves space for the higher level dealers trying to avoid law detection. if i can take 1/100th the weight of a dose of heroin, then i can get more into one space. it’s pretty good business sense, except when it finally gets to a customer who believed they were getting something else, and doses the incorrect weight. however true, addicts become increasingly aware of this and adjust accordingly — a common technique is to break off a piece of pill, and smoke it to test if it’s a pressed one or not. onset is faster, so you can judge faster if you really got oxy, or if you got fentanyl. of course another danger is the distribution is not even, the pressed pills can have “hot spots”.

most “fake acid” and stuff like that tends to be research chemicals that also work on serotonin to cause hallucinations, and “fake MDMA” just amphetamines. never heard of anyone dying from these or even experiencing psychosis in the case of amphetamines passed off as MDMA, because of several factors. sometimes it may be because they’ve never had the real thing, and can’t tell the difference, and these drugs don’t tend to be abused by non-addicts (the research chemicals no one really abuses in excess, but there are definitely people who enjoy trying them out, and documenting them. these same types of people also try out things like fentanyl analogs, they’re a great and helpful asset.)

so it is true it does largely depend on drug market, and who it’s being sold to. again a lot of this is very hard to prove in stats or numbers, since a lot of “data” we have isnt trustworthy, but it’s interesting there are websites that post samples that users send in to be tested. you’d be honest to god surprised at the stuff that’s put into products, and a lot of it on face value doesn’t seem like a great idea for business.

Thank you so much for these additions! It's so valuable to get the perspective of an addict and activist as my own is somewhat limited by me not having such a background, even as I try to be an ally to all kinds of users/addicts ❤️

[pillatedcompills]

DRUGS

Drugs that tsp characters would do.

Stanley would do weed

Narrator would do fags

432/Timekeeper would do coke

Curator would do Shrooms

Mariella would do Heroine

[realbeefman]

House MD would never happen in 2023 because House would have to end up losing his entire sense of humour for it to go past one episode. He'd make one controversial joke, and the show would be canceled because it was too offensive lmfao

not true i think they could get away with it. but it would SUCK because it would all be very tongue-in-cheek bigotry instead of just house being a dick. and they’d try to justify house’s bigotry through the medical cases.

example of WOKE 2023 Episode of House: house and ducklings are treating a trans patient. house says that he believes that people are transgender and spits out a couple lines of psychobabble medically explaining why gender dysphoria occurs. but THIS patient specifically. is delusional. for thinking they’re transgender. and the entire team obviously goes “house what the fuck is wrong with you. the patient is shitting blood from every orifice. what does that have to do with their gender identity.” and house would say “it wouldn’t… if they were actually transgender” and then they’d question the patient and discover that it ACTUALLY is a symptom of psychosis that has been worsening over time because the patient uses neopronouns.

this would be presented as revolutionary representation and a scary amount of people would accept it as progressive content

the more accurate reason house couldn’t be made in 2023, is that house would never be able to get prescription narcotics legally, and would end up in jail serving a 20 year sentence by halfway through season 1

[trancendeschaos]

save your soul

[allthecanadianpolitics]

One hundred and eighty-four British Columbians were killed last month after they used drugs from the illicit market. That’s about six deaths per day.

On Wednesday the BC Coroners Service said expedited drug testing found that fentanyl and/or fentanyl analogues were involved in 90 per cent of the fatalities. Three-quarters of the tests found the additional presence of a stimulant.

“Illicit fentanyl continues to drive the crisis, which is causing death in large and small municipalities, towns and cities across the province,” said chief coroner Lisa Lapointe at Wednesday’s update. “This health emergency is not confined to one neighbourhood or one demographic. Anyone accessing an illicit substance is at risk of serious harm or death.”

So far this year 1,200 people in the province have lost their lives to toxic drugs, according to the BC Coroners Service. More than 80 per cent of those deaths happened indoors, with half of those deaths happening in a private residence. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[morrissforever]

If you would like the PDF for my free for the community zine titled “Fentanyl Kills”, please reach out to me and I’m more than happy to share it. Together we can educate the community, and fight to stop overdoses caused by fentanyl.