#fentanyl

#fentanyl

Some experts have mischaracterized smoking fentanyl as "safer" than injecting, seeking to reduce risks among users. Narrowly considered, the statement is accurate, as inhalation avoids needle-sharing, reducing risks for HIV, hepatitis C, bacteremia, abscess formation, and infective endocarditis among users. However, there's no clinical-trial-level evidence (randomized trials with real patients) showing smoking illicit fentanyl is safer than injecting it. It isn't, and that conclusion is unsupported by toxicology, environmental exposure science, or emerging data.

On Friday, Gonzalez was sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison for giving Dreith counterfeit fentanyl pills called "blue M-30s." She also got an extra four years and four months for other felony convictions related to selling drugs. "This sentencing reflects the seriousness of the defendant's actions and the devastating and deadly consequences of distributing fentanyl," Fresno County Dist. Atty. Lisa Smittcamp said in a statement.

At that time, the U.S. indicated that criminal organizations were manufacturing the synthetic opioid from precursors shipped from China and demanded stronger action from Mexico to contain the problem. The Mexican government's campaign against the drug began during Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's presidency, but the results were not immediately tangible as the number of overdose deaths in the United States multiplied, reaching almost 74,000 in 2022.

When reporter Ethan Brooks met Evan, he was in bad shape. Rosin: Years of addiction had left him with a leg that was so swollen and infected that he was at risk of losing it. On top of that, he couldn't keep food down. And he didn't know why. His best friend, Joe, was worried. Rosin: Evan ended up in the hospital.

On June 11, 2018, seeking relief from chronic pancreatitis pain, Ashley Romero took what she believed to be half a pill of Percocet. Within minutes, she was dead. The pill, which Romero's boyfriend had acquired on the black market, was packed with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that can be fatal in doses the size of a dozen grains of salt. Romero left behind a then seven-year-old son.

Staten Island bested all the other boroughs with a 49% reduction in accidental deaths from overdoses last year, from 157 in 2023 to 81, according to the most recent statistics available from the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. In addition to the work of the task force, the borough is leading the nation with the AI-based Hotspotting the Overdose Epidemic program, which garnered a 77% drop in fatal overdoses among active participants for the 12 months ending in April 2024.

"There's no doubt that America's adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States in part because they want to kill Americans. If this were a war, that would be one of the worst wars. I believe they killed over the last five or six years, per year, 200-to-300,000 people. You hear about a 100,000, which is a lot of people, but the number is much higher than that. That's been proven."

Robert Dunne, the son of businessman Ben Dunne, died accidentally after consuming a mix of three highly addictive drugs, including cocaine.

"When I picked her up, she was nodding out," Collins said.

Donald Trump may walk away from the Ukrainian war, the US president's oldest son has said in comments to a Middle East conference. In a lengthy tirade against the purpose of continued fighting in Ukraine, Donald Trump Jr also said Ukraine's corrupt rich had fled their country leaving what they believed to be the peasant class to fight the war.

An Alabama attorney has been accused of trying to poison her husband with a substance she believed to be fentanyl. Sara Baker, 74, of Vinemont, Alabama, is accused of putting the substance in her husband's food or drink on three separate occasions in September, report the Cullman Tribune, Law & Crime, ABC 33/40, WAFF 48 and WVTM 13.

Mr. President, thank you so much for taking questions with your assembled cabinet. I wanted to clarify something that you had said on Sunday regarding the boat strikes near Venezuela. You had said that you didn't know if the second strike on that one boat had happened, but you wouldn't have wanted it, Gutierrez began, adding: Now that your administration has acknowledged that it happened, do you support that second strike?

LOS ANGELES A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer was sentenced to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to working with Mexican traffickers to bring drugs into the U.S., officials said Thursday. Diego Bonillo, 30, pleaded guilty in July to multiple charges, including conspiracy to import controlled substances such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. As part of his plea deal, he admitted to using his position to allow drug-filled cars into the U.S. from Mexico without inspection.

The inmate, identified as 31-year-old Markeisha Monique Renee Blount, suffered a medical emergency around 6 a.m. on Sept. 29 at the Maple Street Correctional Facility, the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office said in a news release Tuesday. Jail personnel administered life-saving measures, including Narcan, but she died at the facility. Detectives determined another inmate brought drugs into the jail and gave them to Blount, the sheriff's office said, adding that "the drugs are believed to have contained fentanyl."

Fewer than one in three teenagers with opioid use disorder receive treatment, according to a study published in this month's Health Affairs journal that looked at the disorder in minors from 2022 to 2023. In 2023, 557 teens died of opioid overdose, nearly threefold as many as in 2018, while adult opioid deaths only went up by 65% during this time, according to the study. Drug overdoses are now among the leading causes of death for US teenagers.