WASHINGTON (AFP) – The synthetic drug, fentanyl, has surpassed heroin as the deadliest drug in the United States, taking more than 18,000 lives in 2016, federal health officials said on Wednesday (Dec 12). In 2016, the latest year for which full data is available, “29 per cent of all drug overdose deaths mentioned involvement of fentanyl,” said the report from the National Centre for Health Statistics, part of the US
In recent years, Americans have begun, justifiably, to recognize the complex public health problem of opioid misuse and associated overdose deaths as a national crisis. Unfortunately, as is often the case when a tidal wave of worry about a particular health issue engulfs the nation, other similar concerns are often swept out of public consciousness. Take alcohol misuse, for instance. Although alcohol arguably presents a greater threat to public health
Lindsay Bunker woke up from a nightmare. The 32-year-old lives with her sixth-month-old daughter on the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. She’s struggled with addiction for over 10 years, mostly to heroin. Then came the nightmare: She dreamt two men were attacking her baby while she could think only about drugs. “In my mind I was thinking, ‘If I can just get one hit, if I can
When Maddy Nadeau was a toddler, her mother wasn’t able to care for her. “I remember Mom was always locking herself in her room and she didn’t take care of me. My mom just wasn’t around at the time,” she says. Every day, her older sister Devon came home from elementary school and made sure Maddy had something to eat. “Devon would come home from school and fix them cold
Each day in the U.S. more than 115 people die from an opioid overdose. But in this small town of Greenfield, Massachusetts, a community is taking innovative steps to combat the crisis and break the addiction cycle Click to view original link
MILWAUKEE — It’s no longer a question that opioid abuse has become a rising problem in Wisconsin. In 2017, nearly twice as many people died from opioid overdoses (916, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services) as car crashes (545, according to the Department of Transportation) in the state. On top of that, for the third straight year, U.S. life expectancy has dropped, according to the report from the
Fentanyl in cocaine: The deadly truth of new drugs cocktail The US government has warned that a surge in cocaine deaths is being exacerbated by the presence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 80-100 times stronger than morphine. Correspondent Nick Bryant and cameraman Darren Conway report from Illinois on a worrying new trend in America’s opioid crisis. Accreditation: Click to View Original Article
A northern Illinois coroner issued an alert about dangerous drugs after a spate of deaths in a small city. Grundy County Coroner John W. Callahan’s office along with Coal City Police Department is investigating the death Tuesday afternoon of a 60-year-old as a result of suspected heroin overdose. “This is the third death in Coal City this past 10 days as a result of suspected heroin,” Callahan said in a
At the height of his addiction, Bobby, from Barrow-in-Furness, was injecting heroin and crack cocaine up to six times a day. The BBC’s Michael Buchanan finds out how the man turned his life around in a town where drug-related deaths have reached unprecedented levels.
Photo by Mike Beyer Recovering from drug addiction is not typically a one-and-done experience. Often, people move repeatedly between treatment and relapse, and not because of some personality flaw or weakness, but because of the enormity of the task at hand. Studies have suggested that between 40 and upwards of 85 percent of individuals struggling with drug addiction will experience relapse, many within a year of treatment. A large part
