Drug News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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Drug overdose deaths in 2020 hit highest number ever recorded, CDC data shows
Source: CNN
(CNN)Drug overdose deaths rose by close to 30% in the United States in 2020, hitting the highest number ever recorded, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday.

More than 93,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2020, according to provisional data released by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. That's a 29.4% increase from the 72,151 deaths projected for 2019.

"Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) and psychostimulants such as methamphetamine also increased in 2020 compared to 2019. Cocaine deaths also increased in 2020, as did deaths from natural and semi-synthetic opioids (such as prescription pain medication)," the NCHS said in a statement.

"This is the highest number of overdose deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period, and the largest increase since at least 1999," Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/14/health/d ... index.html
weatheriscool
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Drug Distributors and J.&J. Announce $26 Billion Deal to End Opioids Lawsuits
Source: New York Times
After two years of wrangling, the country’s three major drug distributors and a pharmaceutical giant have reached a $26 billion deal with states that would release some of the biggest companies in the industry from all legal liability in the opioid epidemic. The announcement was made Wednesday afternoon by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general. The offer will now go out to every state and municipality in the country for approval.

If enough of them formally sign on to it, billions of dollars from the companies could begin to be released to help communities pay for addiction treatment and prevention services and other steep financial costs of the epidemic. In return, the states and cities would drop thousands of lawsuits against the companies and pledge not to bring any future action. The settlement binds only these four companies — the drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, McKesson, and Johnson & Johnson — leaving thousands of other lawsuits against many other pharmaceutical defendants, including manufacturers and drugstore chains, in the mammoth nationwide litigation still unresolved.

But these four companies are widely seen as among the defendants with the deepest pockets. In an emailed statement, Michael Ullmann, executive vice president and general counsel of Johnson & Johnson, said: “We recognize the opioid crisis is a tremendously complex public health issue, and we have deep sympathy for everyone affected. This settlement will directly support state and local efforts to make meaningful progress in addressing the opioid crisis in the United States.”

In a joint statement, the three distributors said: “While the companies strongly dispute the allegations made in these lawsuits, they believe the proposed settlement agreement and settlement process it establishes are important steps toward achieving broad resolution of governmental opioid claims and delivering meaningful relief to communities across the United States.” The distributors, which by law are supposed to monitor quantities of prescription drug shipments, have been accused of turning a blind eye for two decades while pharmacies across the country ordered millions of pills for their communities.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/heal ... ement.html
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Yuli Ban
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Schizophrenia linked to marijuana use disorder is on the rise, study finds.
The proportion of schizophrenia cases linked with problematic use of marijuana has increased over the past 25 years, according to a new study from Denmark.

In 1995, 2% of schizophrenia diagnoses in the country were associated with cannabis use disorder. In 2000, it increased to around 4%. Since 2010, that figure increased to 8%, the study found.
"I think it is highly important to use both our study and other studies to highlight and emphasize that cannabis use is not harmless," said Carsten Hjorthøj, an associate professor at the Copenhagen Research Center for Mental Health and an author of the study published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry, via email.
"There is, unfortunately, evidence to suggest that cannabis is increasingly seen as a somewhat harmless substance. This is unfortunate, since we see links with schizophrenia, poorer cognitive function, substance use disorders, etc," Hjorthøj wrote.
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caltrek
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The Untold Story of Purdue Pharma’s Cozy Relationship With the American Medical Association
by Julia Lurie
August 5, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... ic-health/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) The American Medical Association’s new training on pain management arrived in the midst of a burgeoning crisis. It was September 2007, and doctors were prescribing enough opioid painkillers each year for every American adult to have a bottle of the addictive pills. Overdoses were at a historic high and showed no signs of slowing down. Just four months earlier, executives at Purdue Pharma had pleaded guilty to felony charges for misleading regulators and physicians about the dangers of OxyContin.

In light of this news, one might have expected the AMA—the prestigious organization that bills itself as the “unified voice” of America’s doctors dedicated to “the art and science of medicine and the betterment of public health”—to bring attention to the crisis in its newly updated continuing education course on how to treat pain.

Instead, the 12-module training suggested that doctors were still too tentative about prescribing narcotics. “The effectiveness of opioid therapy may be undermined by misconceptions about their risks, particularly risks associated with abuse and addiction,” read materials from one session. The class included ideas like “pseudoaddiction,” referring to when pain patients seem “inappropriately drug seeking,” but aren’t truly addicted—rather, they just needed more pills.

For young children who were unable to verbalize their pain, materials encouraged prescribers to use the “Poker Chip Tool”: lay out four poker chips in front of a child, explain that the chips are “pieces of hurt,” and ask how many pieces of hurt the child has. The course instructs, “Do not give children an option for zero hurt.”

Thousands of physicians took the course, which was first released in 2003 and updated periodically over the next decade.
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Yuli Ban
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And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
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Yuli Ban
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Amazon relaxes drug testing policies and will lobby the government to legalize marijuana
  • Amazon said it has “reinstated the employment eligibility” for former workers or applicants who were fired or deferred during marijuana screenings.
  • Amazon ended pre-employment marijuana screenings for most job applicants in June.
  • The company is also lobbying the federal government to legalize marijuana.
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weatheriscool
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Study shows medicinal cannabis products can help with depression and improve quality of life
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10- ... ality.html
by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress
A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in the U.S. has found evidence that medicinal cannabis products relieve depression and improve the quality of life. In their paper published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, the group describes their study involving online surveys about the benefits of cannabis products.

Prior research findings regarding the use of cannabis-based products to treat depression and anxiety have been mixed. Some patients have shown improvements while others have not. Prior research has also found that other drugs developed to treat depression and anxiety also have mixed results—some have seen improvements while others have not, and some patients have found that they cannot tolerate the side effects of the drugs. Also, some people have begun using medicinally approved cannabis products to help with their depression, anxiety, chronic pain or sleep disorder, regardless of the research track record—either independently, or with assistance from a doctor. In this new effort, the researchers conducted a study to gauge the opinions of people who use such products, rather than focusing on reports from the medical community regarding how well they thought they worked.
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caltrek
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Antibiotic Resistance is at a Crisis Point – Government Support for Academia and Big Pharma to Find New Drugs Could Help Defeat Superbugs
by Andre Hudson
October 29, 2021

https://theconversation.com/antibiotic- ... ugs-169443

Introduction:
(The Conversation) Antibiotic resistance poses one of the most important health challenges of the 21st century. And time has already run out to stop its dire consequences.

The rise of multidrug-resistant bacteria has already led to a significant increase in human disease and death. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 2.8 million people worldwide are infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, accounting for 35,000 deaths each year in the U.S. and 700,000 deaths around the globe.

A 2019 joint report by the United Nations, World Health Organization and World Organization for Animal Health states that drug-resistant diseases could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 and force up to 24 million people into extreme poverty by 2030 if no action is taken. Superbugs are already able to evade all existing treatments – a 70-year-old woman from Nevada died in 2016 from a bacterial infection resistant to every available antibiotic in the U.S.
Conclusion:
(A) bipartisan bill proposed in June 2021, the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act…would pay developers contractually agreed-upon amounts to research and develop antimicrobial drugs for a time period that ranges from five years up to the end of the patent.

I believe the passage of this act would be an important step in the right direction to address antibiotic resistance and the threat it poses to human health in the U.S. and around the globe. A monetary incentive to take up basic research around new ways to kill dangerous bacteria seems to me like the world’s best available option for emerging from the antibiotic resistance crisis.
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Yuli Ban
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Boris Johnson has said he will examine the latest advice on the legalisation of psilocybin - a psychedelic drug found in magic mushrooms.

Tory MP Crispin Blunt urged the PM to review the law to allow more research into the drug's therapeutic qualities.

Mr Blunt said it had "exciting potential" for the treatment of mental health conditions such as depression, trauma and addiction.

Mr Johnson said he would get back to Mr Blunt "as soon as possible".

Psilocybin is currently included in Schedule 1 of the Misuse of Drugs Act, along with drugs like ecstasy and LSD. This means it cannot be lawfully possessed or prescribed and a Home Office licence is needed for use in research.

Campaigners, including Mr Blunt, want it to be moved to Schedule 2 with restrictions to prevent inappropriate prescribing to facilitate medical and scientific research.
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