Cheap tramadol pills smuggled into Gaza have set off an opioid crisis among the area's masses of unemployed youth. It’s hard to measure the scope of the problem in Gaza, “a conservative society of 2 million where it is considered shameful to admit to such a problem,”…
February 11, 2019
Long suicidal, Joe Wright “almost immediately started feeling more hopeful about life” after taking Ketamine as part of a small Columbia University study.
February 7, 2019
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia launched a legal challenge Wednesday against what could be America’s first site for medically supervised opioid injections, NPR reports. This is the US government’s first intervention into the hot-button issue of injection sites and could…
February 1, 2019
Opioids are a cheap option for pain relief during palliative care—but across Africa, morphine shortages are about more than money. The legacy of America’s “war on drugs” in the 1980s and 1990s looms large, leaving behind stubborn stigma, plus prescription restrictions and…
January 31, 2019
As Purdue Pharma raked in profits from its headline painkiller OxyContin, the firm also explored another business opportunity: the “attractive market” of opioid addiction treatment, according to previously secret internal correspondence. The documents are part of a…
January 29, 2019
By 2006, the average per person morphine consumption in Western Europe was 12X that of Eastern Europe—and the divide remains stark. Before the palliative care movement took off in the 1960s, Europe’s morphine consumption was more even. A Soviet legacy and “tough it out”…
January 25, 2019
In rural areas hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, officials struggle to estimate the problem’s scope and the resources needed to alleviate it.
January 18, 2019
Opioids may be linked to a horrific birth defect where babies are born with their intestines hanging outside their body. From 2011-2015, the prevalence of gastroschisis rose 10%, according to new CDC data. The condition, also associated with young mothers, was 60% more…
January 16, 2019
The Sackler family knew they were in deep water over OxyContin, according to a 2008 family memo. The document reveals the family’s inner workings as the legal fallout from Purdue Pharma’s marketing tactics took hold. In the memo, a head of the clan warned that the family…
January 9, 2019
Puerto Rico’s opioid problem doesn’t compare to that on the US mainland—yet. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, the US territory could quickly catch up.