Ohio lawmakers introduced a bill to decriminalize fentanyl testing strips for residents of the state.
The legislation, House Bill 456, would remove the strips that change color if fentanyl is detected from the list of drug paraphernalia that is prohibited.
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Ohio’s top attorney this week is warning residents of a new class of designer drugs that are more deadly than fentanyl.
“Frankenstein opioids are even more lethal than the drugs already responsible for so many overdose deaths,” Attorney General Dave Yost said in a press release. “Law enforcement and the public need to pay attention to these emerging hazards.”
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An Akron man whose son died of an overdose in 2015 is on a crusade to take fentanyl, a ultra-lethal drug manufactured mostly in China and by Mexican cartels, off the streets for good.
Motivated by his son’s tragic death, James Rauh founded an organization called Families Against Fentanyl, which is taking a unique approach to fighting the manufacture and import of that drug.
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In a year marred by death from an ongoing pandemic, 2020 also saw record overdose deaths.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 2020 saw a record year-over-year number of opioid overdose deaths.
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A panel of government health advisers said Friday there’s no clear evidence that a harder-to-crush version of the painkiller OxyContin designed to discourage abuse actually resulted in fewer overdoses or deaths.
The conclusion from the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel comes more than a decade after Purdue Pharma revamped its blockbuster opioid, which has long been blamed for sparking a surge in painkiller abuse beginning in the 1990s.
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Franklin County in Ohio saw another surge in drug-related overdoses last weekend, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Dr. Anahi Ortiz, the Franklin County coroner, told The Dispatch that 11 people had died.
Since the Wuhan virus came to Ohio, Franklin County has been one of state’s hardest-hit areas in terms of overdoses.
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