Axios: New wave of mutating drugs

New wave of mutating drugs
 
Illustration of a skull made out of different types of pills.
Illustration: Allie Carl/Axios
 
Overdose deaths are falling. But America’s illicit drug supply is evolving into lethal cocktails: fentanyl plus stimulants, sedatives and novel synthetics that hide in party powders and pressed pills, Axios’ Russell Contreras reports.🧬 

Why it matters: Those polydrug blends — with nicknames “pink cocaine,” “rhino tranq,” “benzo-dope” and others — are harder to detect, reverse and warn against. Some can even result in the loss of limbs.

That makes recent overdose declines fragile and public-health victories reversible if policy, testing and treatment don’t catch up.

“When we crack down on one drug, the market innovates,” Sheila Vakharia, managing director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy Alliance, tells Axios.

Catch up quick: The Trump administration has highlighted record fentanyl seizures at the southern border and credited tougher enforcement with helping drive overdose deaths down.

Yes, but: Experts say the domestic drug market is adapting in real time.

Targeting fentanyl has incentivized illegal drug suppliers to experiment with other compounds that bypass detection, creating what Vakharia describes as a “whack-a-mole” cycle.Keep reading.
    
 
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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