Objectives: Recently, driven largely by opioid-related deaths, President Donald Trump proclaimed that the opioid problem was now a national emergency. What looks like a radical shift to a more compassionate drug policy-one that favors treatment over incarceration-has encouraged many to hope that there will be far fewer drug-related arrests and deaths than there were in previous decades.
Methods And Results: We present evidence showing that large numbers of drug-related arrests persist and that racial discrimination is evident in opioid-related arrests. In addition, conventional strategies implemented to address opioid-related deaths have proven inadequate.
Conclusions: We propose solutions grounded in reason and evidence rather than moralism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000260 | DOI Listing |
Biostatistics
December 2024
Department of Statistical Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Wake Forest University, 127 Manchester Hall, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109, United States.
The opioid epidemic is a significant public health challenge in North Carolina, but limited data restrict our understanding of its complexity. Examining trends and relationships among different outcomes believed to reflect opioid misuse provides an alternative perspective to understand the opioid epidemic. We use a Bayesian dynamic spatial factor model to capture the interrelated dynamics within six different county-level outcomes, such as illicit opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to drug overdose, treatment counts for opioid use disorder, patients receiving prescriptions for buprenorphine, and newly diagnosed cases of acute and chronic hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Mol Sci
January 2025
Legal Medicine, Department of Medical, Surgical and Advanced Technologies "G.F. Ingrassia", University of Catania, 95123 Catania, Italy.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid widely used for its potent analgesic effects in chronic pain management and intraoperative anesthesia. However, its high potency, low cost, and accessibility have also made it a significant drug of abuse, contributing to the global opioid epidemic. This review aims to provide an in-depth analysis of fentanyl's medical applications, pharmacokinetics, metabolism, and pharmacogenetics while examining its adverse effects and forensic implications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFACS Chem Neurosci
January 2025
Center for Basic Medical Research, Medical School of Nantong University, Nantong 226001, P. R. China.
Chronic pain is a debilitating disease and remains challenging to treat. Morphine serves as the most commonly used drug for the treatment of pathological pain. However, detrimental side effects (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrehosp Disaster Med
January 2025
Department of Emergency Medicine, Summa Health System, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Akron, OhioUSA.
Background: Over 2.7 million people have an opioid use disorder (OUD). Opioid-related deaths have steadily increased over the last decade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnn Surg Oncol
January 2025
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA.
Background: Nearly 25% of opioid-related deaths are from prescribed opioids, and the exacerbation of the opioid epidemic by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic underscores the urgent need to address superfluous prescribing. Therefore, we sought to align local opioid prescribing practices with national guidelines in postoperative non-metastatic breast cancer patients.
Methods: A single-institution analysis included non-metastatic breast surgery patients treated between April 2020 and July 2021.
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