Public Health

It’s as if we can’t conceive of life without drowning ourselves in abusable substances.

Now, with the introduction of fentanyl and carfentanil, the decision to inject heroin or cocaine can easily result in a fatality.

It’s still just nicotine, after all, even if someone doctored it to smell like creme brulee.

Then there are the users who seek to overcome their own elevated tolerance, which interferes with ordinary drug-taking, by simultaneously consuming a second substance of the same general effect

It’s easy to take too much. When that happens, a coma may result. After waking, it’s common to have suffered memory loss.

Still, if the epidemic is already 28 years old, then how much more effective would these steps have been if they had been initiated way back when?

What legalization can’t do is fix any problems inherent in drug use itself.

Once such substances get a foothold in a region, they’re extremely hard to eradicate.

…just as repeal of Prohibition didn’t make alcohol any safer for popular use… neither will legalization remove the risks associated with cannabis.

Based on the vast number of prescriptions for opioid medications written by US practitioners over the past few decades, we’ve become the clear leaders in opioid prescribing.