fentanyl

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How the US Blew It on Fentanyl
How the US Blew It
on Fentanyl
longform

How the US Blew It on Fentanyl

'Washington Post' investigation spreads the blame over multiple administrations

(Newser) - Fentanyl overdoses kill about 196 Americans every day, “the equivalent of a fully loaded Boeing 757-200 crashing and killing everyone on board,” according to the Washington Post , which on Monday published an extensive and damning report on the federal government’s failure to stem the flow of a...

Teenager Thought He Bought a Percocet. It Killed Him

Zach Didier lost his life to fentanyl

(Newser) - In the wake of a 17-year-old's perplexing death, a soccer teammate offered his parents a clue. Zach Didier—an Eagle Scout and school-musical star who died of a suspected overdose—had no history of drug use or any evidence of drugs in his bedroom. But he had once said...

Dad: My Baby ODed on Fentanyl at Public Park

10-month-old now OK; San Francisco city officials, media trying to confirm exactly what happened

(Newser) - A nanny's trip this week to a Bay Area public park with 10-month-old twins in her care turned terrifying, with the family and local authorities sharing that one of the boys was exposed to fentanyl during their visit. Wendy Marroqui tells NBC Bay Area that she took Senna and...

Fentanyl-Laced Cocaine Blamed for Deaths of 3 'High-Achieving' New Yorkers

Police say the buyers were unaware that the coke they ordered contained deadly synthetic opioid

(Newser) - It's no secret that—although the heady Wolf of Wall Street days have passed—cocaine has remained popular among many high-achieving professionals in New York City. Per the Wall Street Journal , those professionals included Ross Mtangi, 40, a trading executive at Credit Suisse Group; Julia Ghahramani, 26, a first-year...

Suspect Got Away After Huge Fentanyl Seizure

He promised to lead DEA agents to drug kingpins but removed tracking device

(Newser) - In July, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Colorado boasted about seizing 114 pounds of pure fentanyl in the biggest-ever seizure of the deadly synthetic opioid on a US highway—but they were quieter about what happened to the alleged drug mule. The suspect, 27-year-old David Maldonado, agreed to cooperate with...

Drugs He Sold Killed 11 People. He's Going to Jail for Life

Customers thought they were buying one drug, got a more dangerous one

(Newser) - In 2016, drugs sold by Aaron Broussard killed 11 people and left others seriously injured. On Tuesday, the Minnesota 31-year-old was sentenced to life in prison, NPR reports. "Although the trauma felt by the victims can never be undone and the true cost can never be calculated, Mr. Broussard...

As China Lost Its Fentanyl Crown, the Cartels Stepped In
2 Cartels Are Keeping
America Flush With Fentanyl
longform

2 Cartels Are Keeping America Flush With Fentanyl

'Wall Street Journal' looks at how the Sinaloa, Jalisco cartels ended up supplying the US after China cracked down

(Newser) - He's a 25-year-old cook who works six days a week and pulls in about $10,000 a month. It's a lucrative gig, but also an illegal one: He's cooking fentanyl that will be smuggled into the US, and his one-person lab churns out the equivalent of hundreds...

Scott Adams Offers Eyebrow- Raising Take on Troubled Young Men

'Dilbert' creator sees only 2 options available: 'murder your own son or watch him die'

(Newser) - Scott Adams has had controversial takes on gun violence before, but his latest one, on the Highland Park mass shooting , is spurring backlash from those speaking on mental health illness and addiction. The 65-year-old creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip posted an eyebrow-raising series of tweets on Wednesday that discussed...

Suspected 'Mass Fentanyl Poisoning Event' Kills 9 in Florida

Authorities suspect other drugs were tainted with fentanyl

(Newser) - Nine people died over the holiday weekend in Gadsden County, Florida, in what officials are calling a "potential mass fentanyl poisoning event." Two women were found dead of an apparent drug overdose Friday, prompting the Gadsden County Sheriff's Office to issue an alert regarding drugs potentially tainted...

Canada Takes Bold Step to 'Remove the Shame' on Drugs

Small amounts of 'hard' drugs to be temporarily decriminalized in British Columbia to fight ODs

(Newser) - If you're busted in British Columbia with a small amount of hard drugs, you could soon see some grace, thanks to an innovative new program designed to deal with the OD crisis. The BBC reports that, starting at the end of January, drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA (ecstasy), and...

CDC Reveals 'Truly Staggering' Stat on Drug Overdoses

More than 107K Americans suffered fatal ODs last year

(Newser) - More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, setting another tragic record in the nation's escalating overdose epidemic, the CDC estimated Wednesday. The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one US overdose death every five minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set...

Report: Novelist's Son Dies of OD After Baby's Drug Death

Daniel Auster was charged earlier this month in daughter's death

(Newser) - Novelist Paul Auster has now lost both his only son and his baby granddaughter to drugs. Law enforcement sources tell the New York Post that Daniel Auster, 44, died Tuesday from what is believed to be an accidental drug overdose. Less than 10 days earlier, Auster was charged with manslaughter,...

Doctor Acquitted of Murder in 14 Fentanyl Deaths

Prosecutors alleged William Husel killed critically ill patients with fentanyl overdoses

(Newser) - After six days of deliberations, a jury in Ohio decided that a doctor accused of killing multiple patients with fentanyl overdoses is not a murderer. William Husel was acquitted Wednesday of 14 counts of murder, all involving critically ill patients in the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System, NBC reports. The...

Study Reveals Startling Stat on Synthetic Opioids

Seizures of pills tainted with fentanyl are up 50-fold in just 4 years

(Newser) - A new study led by New York University has a stat about drug seizures that speaks volumes about the nation's fentanyl problem : In the first quarter of 2018, authorities seized about 42,000 pills containing the highly potent drug, per the National Institutes of Health . In the last quarter...

Spring Break Goes Badly for West Point Cadets

7 people were hospitalized in Fort Lauderdale after ODing on powdery substance laced with fentanyl

(Newser) - Spring break in Fort Lauderdale didn't end well for one group this week, with seven people hospitalized after ODing on fentanyl, several of them confirmed to be West Point cadets. Police say that Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded to a call at a vacation rental home in Wilton Manors...

Cops Tasked With Investigating Black Women's Deaths Suspended

Families of Lauren Smith-Fields, Brenda Rawls say police in Bridgeport, Conn., bungled probes

(Newser) - Update: Two Connecticut police officers involved with investigating the deaths of two Black women have been suspended and placed on administrative leave during an internal affairs probe, reports CBS News . In a Sunday statement, Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim said he was "extremely disappointed" with his city's police department...

Police Find 100 Bags of Fentanyl in Dead Boy's Room

Authorities are still investigating how he got the dangerous drug

(Newser) - The 13-year-old boy who collapsed at his Connecticut school after ingesting fentanyl and died two days later had 100 bags of the synthetic opioid in his bedroom, authorities say. Sixty bags had been found at the school after the incident, ABC News reports, and the 100 bags found in the...

Boy, 13, Dies After Ingesting Fentanyl, Collapsing at School

It's not clear how he got access to the dangerous opioid

(Newser) - A 13-year-old Connecticut boy died Saturday, two days after collapsing during gym class in his school's gymnasium due to a fentanyl overdose. Two other students who came in contact with the drug and were hospitalized at the same time have been released, USA Today reports. The mayor of Hartford,...

It Took 8 Narcan Doses to Save Her. That Was Just the Start

A fentanyl-addicted daughter, and the mother who tried to help her

(Newser) - Laurie Steves made the drive alone from Port Orchard, Wash., to San Francisco this May. Kind of. As Heather Knight writes in a lengthy story for the San Francisco Chronicle , she had the ashes of her son Zachary in the car. The 25-year-old had died of a fentanyl and ketamine...

The Number of Fatal ODs We Just Suffered Is Huge

Number crests 100K for first time ever

(Newser) - As if COVID wasn't enough of a mortality whammy, now this: The CDC on Wednesday announced that Americans suffered more than 100,000 drug overdose deaths in a 12-month period for the first time ever. Between May 2019 and April 2020 there were 78,056 overdose deaths. Over the...

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