Last week, the New York Times and the Baltimore Banner reported that Black men in their “mid-50s to early 70s” in Baltimore account for nearly 30 percent of overdose deaths, despite making up just seven percent of Baltimore’s population. According to the New York Times article, “Black men of...
After Philadelphia's mayor proposed cutting funding for the city’s syringe services programs (SSPs), the CDC sent a letter to the director of the Penn Center for AIDS Research warning that cutting funding to SSPs could result in an HIV outbreak. In response to a social media post...
Last week, multiple media outlets reported that overdose deaths in the United States have declined slightly for the first time in five years, according to preliminary data from the CDC. This news prompted discussion across multiple social media platforms. Some social media users celebrated the decline in overdose deaths and...
On a recent episode of the late-night television show Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver discussed opioid settlement funds. Oliver argued that local governments are not using these funds in the most effective ways and said the funds should be used to support harm reduction services such as overdose prevention...
Last week in Austin, Texas, police launched an investigation after widespread overdoses due to opioids and other drugs resulted in multiple deaths and hospitalizations. Local news stations reported that after the overdose surge, police seized cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana laced with fentanyl. In response to the overdoses, community health care...
Last week, a Rolling Stone article celebrated country music artists who are singing and speaking about the opioid crisis and their own experiences with substance use disorder. Country music artist Jamie Wyatt, who was interviewed for the article and spoke in favor of harm reduction, shared the article on Instagram...
A recent survey of U.S. college students published in JAMA Pediatrics found that while more than half of the students surveyed could correctly identify the signs of an opioid overdose and expressed a willingness to intervene, just one in seven students knew how to administer naloxone. While there is...
In March, a Kentucky child died after having a suspected allergic reaction to strawberries. The Hopkins County Health Department advised residents to dispose of strawberries purchased at a local school fundraiser out of an abundance of caution, but FDA testing later determined that the strawberries were safe. Last week, the...
A new Florida law will make it a felony to expose first responders to fentanyl or other chemically similar drugs when the exposure results in physical harm. Experts from American College of Medical Toxicology and American Academy of Clinical Toxicology said this law will create an “unnecessary concern,” as the...
Last week, a nonprofit in Walker County, Alabama, installed the state’s first Narcan vending machine, which offers free naloxone as a nasal spray or as an intramuscular injection. Organizers behind the project say Walker County, which has a population of fewer than 65,000 people, has one of the...
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