Reviewing Stories of Drug Use and Abuse So Far in 2017: OPIOIDS

We have been following several important topics from both a scientific and societal angle throughout the year.  The next series of posts will highlight the information and articles we found one category at a time.  Next up is a collection of articles about opioids and the opioid epidemic.

OPIOIDS

Our first article on this subject posted in May after our VP Dr. Francisco Rojas wrote a blog entry on the relationship between pH and opioids:

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6328/966

May also brought this story about a novel way to use fentanyl tests for checking heroin:

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/05/16/527924429/an-experiment-helps-heroin-users-test-their-street-drugs-for-fentanyl

In June we posted two articles.  The first is about an unexpected outcome of the opioid epidemic:

https://www.vox.com/2017/6/5/15111936/opioid-crisis-pain-west-virginia

The second focuses on the complicated relationship between opiate addiction, treatment options and politics:

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/12/523774660/a-drugmaker-tries-to-cash-in-on-the-opioid-epidemic-one-state-law-at-a-time

Two articles caught our attention last month.  The first is about gabapentin, a drug for nerve pain, that is quickly joining the ranks of abused painkillers.

https://www.statnews.com/2017/07/06/gabapentin-opioid-abuse/

The second is an article written for the American Association of Clinical Chemistry about the opioid epidemic:

https://www.aacc.org/publications/cln/articles/2017/may/close-up-on-the-opioid-crisis-labs-have-a-key-role-in-advising-physicians-providing-optimal-testing