The opioid crisis

That was a very moving obituary. Thanks for passing it on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/fda-approves-a-powerful-new-opioid/2018/11/02/88cd27e6-deaf-11e8-85df-7a6b4d25cfbb_story.html?utm_term=.c81154e57fcc

The drug is five to 10 times more potent than pharmaceutical fentanyl.

I would hate to be the poor guy that needs that stuff.

Why are they doing that? Do we actually need it? At $50-$60 per dose it seems like a purely greed based item.

From the article:

The drug approved Friday is a 30-microgram pill form of sufentanil, a powerful, 34-year-old opioid commonly used after surgery and in emergency rooms. Each pill, placed under the tongue for quick absorption, would have the same impact as five milligrams of intravenous morphine. Each would come in a plastic applicator that looks like a syringe.

The drug is intended for use within health-care settings and perhaps on the battlefield. It would not be available in retail pharmacies.

Answers your question. It’s already in use in another form (so there is a need for it), and it sounds far more portable than morphine bags which battlefield medics use (or used to use)

A long article in WaPo on how the opiod crisis is killing African Americans
TL:DR Up until 2014, the big increase in opioid deaths was among white rural and suburban users. Starting in 2014 Fentanyl started being mixed with heroin, which has caused many long-time African American addicts to die of OD because Fentanyl is so powerful.

Jesus.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-insys-opioids-idUSKCN1P312L

I’m okay with the death penalty here.

Only if it’s slow. And televised.

That smug look on his faces. What scum.

The wealthy are, more often than not, scum.

That’s why they float to the top.

13 people accidentally overdosed on fentanyl together at a house in California.

Fentanyl is now the drug most frequently involved in overdose deaths in the U.S., according to figures released in December by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A synthetic opioid pain reliever, the drug is 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

It worked for the British against the Chinese! So why not for the Americans against the Americans?

Today in “Dumb use of statistics”:

Wondering why you’re characterizing it as a dumb use of statistics? Didn’t see anything from the article which leaped out at me.

Oh, I was referring to them comparing groups: they variously conflate Americans in general, people who drive cars, and people who use opioids.

Most Americans chances of dying from an opioid overdose is effectively zero.

Giving comparative odds for such things are a bit odd, to say the least. Comparing the stats for total deaths would be perfectly reasonable, but if you don’t use opium, your odds of an overdose round down to 0, whereas even if you don’t drive a car can still kill you. And I imagine that even in West Virginia there are a lot more drivers than opioid users.

Well sure, P(death by heroin) given you’re an American is very different to P(death by heroin) given you’re a heroin using American.