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Tag: overdose
Quasi-Legal Street Drug Poses New Lethal Threat To Users

Quasi-Legal Street Drug Poses New Lethal Threat To Users

By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times

Emergency physicians are bracing for a new rash of overdoses of a drug that looks like heroin but may not respond to commonly used doses of the opiate-reversal drug naloxone because it is so powerful, a new study reports.

The threat comes from an emerging street drug called acetyl fentanyl — an opiate that is five to 15 times as powerful as heroin and is being mixed with street drugs sold as heroin. An article appearing in the Annals of Emergency Medicine on Monday warns emergency physicians to expect “an upswing in what appear on the surface to be heroin overdoses” but are in fact tied to acetyl fentanyl.

Acetyl fentanyl, an analog of the prescription opiate fentanyl, has no recognized medical use. But it is not specifically regulated, and loopholes in its distribution position the drug in a legal gray area, which makes it easier to get — and hence cheaper on the streets — than fentanyl.

In large quantities, acetyl fentanyl can be titled, labeled, and stored as a product with industrial or non-human research purposes. As long as it’s labeled “not for human consumption,” the transportation and sale of a large package of the stuff would be technically legal.

As a result, drug dealers may be tempted to cut their supplies of heroin with it.

Many users knowingly inject acetyl fentanyl directly as a substitute for heroin or prescription-grade opiates. For those who use the extraordinarily potent drug unknowingly, overdoses are highly likely.

“What’s frightening about this emerging street drug is that users themselves may not be aware they are ingesting it,” wrote lead author John Stogner, a professor of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. If acetyl fentanyl is responsible for a drug overdose, Stogner cautioned, physicians may find that larger or additional doses of naloxone are necessary to reverse the overdose.

“One of the many downsides of illegal drugs is you just can’t trust your drug dealer,” wrote Stogner and colleagues. With the use of adulterants in street drugs growing — and delivering more potent highs — “the significant potential for overdose of acetyl fentanyl necessitates more medical research and policy reform,” they wrote.

AFP Photo/Andrew Burton

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U.S. Approves Handheld Injector For Painkiller Overdose

U.S. Approves Handheld Injector For Painkiller Overdose

Washington (AFP) — U.S. regulators on Thursday approved a handheld injector device that average people could use in an emergency to revive a person suspected of overdosing on prescription painkillers.

Evzio contains a single dose of the drug naloxone, and is the first injector of its kind on the market for untrained medical personnel, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said.

The United States is in the midst of a prescription opioid epidemic, with overdoses taking more lives than cocaine and heroin combined.

“Tragically, the most recent data shows that more than 16,000 lives are lost each year due to opioid-related overdoses,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

News of Evzio’s approval came just weeks after a potent new opioid called Zohydro hit the U.S. market, raising alarm among some health advocates over the potential for more addiction and deaths.

Evzio, a combination drug-device product made by Virginia-based Kaleo, aims to help by offering an early intervention option for people at risk of overdose.

“Making this product available could save lives by facilitating earlier use of the drug in emergency situations,” said Bob Rappaport, director of the Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia, and Addiction Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The injector “can be carried in a pocket or stored in a medicine cabinet,” said the FDA in a statement.

If a caregiver or family member comes across someone who is suspected of having overdosed and has lost consciousness or has decreased breathing or heart rate, the injector can deliver a single dose of naloxone into the person’s skin or muscle.

Naloxone “rapidly reverses the effects of opioid overdose and is the standard treatment for overdose,” said the FDA.

It is typically delivered to a patient via syringe in medical settings such as in an ambulance or the hospital emergency room.

The injector alone is not enough, and caregivers are urged to call 911 and get swift professional medical care in case of a suspected overdose.

More people die in the United States annually from prescription drug overdoses than from car crashes, the CDC said.

“This is good news, but a more effective way to end the epidemic of overdose deaths would be to stop the over-prescribing of opioid painkillers and to stop their promotion as safe and effective for long-term use,” said Judy Rummler, an activist whose adult son died of an overdose after a long battle with painkiller addiction.

News of the device’s approval was also welcomed by Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing.

“Making an overdose antidote more available in the midst of an overdose epidemic is a no-brainer, it will save lives,” he said.

“The irony is that if FDA were to stop releasing dangerous new opioids on to the market, like Zohydro, there would be much less need for an overdose antidote.”

He also cautioned that having a quick way to administer naloxone is not a sure way to save someone, since many overdoses occur when a person is asleep or alone.

Photo: massdistraction via Flickr

Four Arrests In Drug Probe Of Hoffman Death

Four Arrests In Drug Probe Of Hoffman Death

Washington (AFP) – U.S. police investigating the apparent drug overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman arrested four people Tuesday night with more than 350 bags of heroin, the New York Times reported.

Three men and a woman were arrested in a search of three Manhattan apartments. Investigators recovered the bags of heroin inside the apartments, the paper said, quoting a law enforcement official.

The Times said information stemming from the investigation into Hoffman’s death led them to the building, the official said.

Hoffman died on Sunday in an apparent heroin overdose, with a needle found stuck in his arm.

Also Tuesday, police said heroin found in Hoffman’s apartment did not contain fentanyl, a powerful additive that has been tied to 22 recent fatal overdoses in Pennsylvania.

The city medical examiner had not yet reached a definitive cause of death for the award winning actor, who was 46 and had three children. He was hailed by many as the finest character actor of his generation.

Police said he was found on the bathroom floor, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, in the apartment he rented at 53 Bethune Street in the West Village.

According to U.S. media, at least 50 envelopes of heroin littered the $10,000 (7,400 euros) a month rental.

AFP Photo/Stan Honda