Latest news with #opioid
CTV News
17 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Kingston, Ont. health unit warns of increased amount of carfentanil in local drug supply
The South East Health Unit is warning residents about an observed rise in the presence of the synthetic opioid carfentanil in the local drug supply. The health unit says in a news release that the Kingston Consumption and Treatment Services (CTS) site has reported an increase in expected fentanyl samples testing positive for carfentanil, which is considered to be up to 100 times stronger than fentanyl. 'The presence of carfentanil in the unregulated drug supply is cause for concern, as its strength significantly increases the risk for drug poisonings and drug poisoning deaths. Reversing its effects may require higher-than-usual doses of naloxone,' the health unit says. The South East Health Unit is advising people if they are going to use drugs, to avoid using alone, avoid mixing drugs, go slow, and have naloxone on hand to reverse the effects of an overdose, if one occurs. Going to the supervised consumption site at 661 Montreal St. in Kingston is also recommended. The site is open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and is open to anyone. The site offers supervised consumption services, including drug poisoning response if needed, harm reduction education and supplies, including disposal of used supplies, naloxone, connection with community support workers, and drug checking services. If you have a friend or family member who uses drugs, it is advised that you obtain a free naloxone kit and training and forward safety warnings to them. You can also call the National Overdose Response Service at 1-888-688-NORS (6677). This is a toll-free, phone-based virtual service, where trained peer volunteers answer calls, assist in making a safety plan and stay on the line with the person for approximately 20 to 35 minutes.
Reuters
a day ago
- Health
- Reuters
American Kratom Association Issues Policy Advisory to State Attorneys General Urging Immediate Crackdown on Dangerous 7-OH Products
WASHINGTON, DC, July 31, 2025 (EZ Newswire) -- Today, American Kratom Association (AKA), opens new tab issued a formal policy advisory to the attorneys general in every state that has enacted a Kratom Consumer Protection Act (KCPA), urging them to take immediate enforcement action against the unlawful sale of highly dangerous 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) products that are misleadingly marketed as kratom. This action comes in response to the recent decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to recommend that 7-OH be placed into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, opens new tab, citing overwhelming evidence of its opioid-like effects, high abuse potential, and serious risks to consumer safety. 'Let's be clear: 7-OH is not kratom,' said Mac Haddow, senior fellow on public policy for the American Kratom Association. 'It is a chemically altered, synthetic opioid analogue that hijacks the reputation of natural kratom to sell highly addictive and dangerous products to unsuspecting consumers. These are not traditional botanical kratom products — they are designer opioids with a new label.' 7-OH Sellers Exploiting Public Confusion The urgency of enforcement is amplified by recent reckless and disturbing communications from 7-OH product manufacturers, who are advising distributors not to remove these dangerous products from shelves despite the impending scheduling: "100% no reason to take 7-OH off shelves. Watch sales soar after this. You couldn't buy this kind of advertising!" — leading 7-OH manufacturer This brazen statement shows the callous disregard of bad actors for public health and safety. It is a direct attempt to capitalize on regulatory confusion while putting lives at risk. Every Sale Puts a Consumer at Risk The FDA has confirmed that 7-OH acts as a full mu-opioid receptor agonist, producing effects more potent than morphine, including respiratory depression, dependence, withdrawal, and overdose. Yet, these products are being marketed and sold over the counter in gas stations, smoke shops, and online platforms under the misleading guise of being kratom. 'Every 7-OH sale is a public health time bomb. Consumers have no idea they're buying a synthetic opioid, and the consequences can be fatal,' said Haddow. 'State attorneys general must act immediately to enforce existing laws under the KCPA and remove these products from the market.' KCPA Provides the Legal Tools While several states have enacted the KCPA, products that exceed safe 7-OH thresholds — or contain synthetically derived 7-OH — are explicitly illegal based on consumer protection laws designed to protect consumers from marketing deception. The AKA advisory urges attorneys general to use their statutory authority to: Federal Action Must Be Reinforced at the State Level With the DEA now considering the FDA's scheduling recommendation, state action is more important than ever to protect consumers in the interim period. 'The FDA has done its job. Now it's time for state enforcement agencies to do theirs. We are calling on every attorney general to step up and protect their citizens before any life is lost,' concluded Haddow. About American Kratom Association (AKA) American Kratom Association (AKA) is a consumer-based, nonprofit organization, focused on furthering the latest science as guidance for kratom public policy. AKA works to give a voice to millions of Americans by fighting to protect their rights to access safe and natural kratom. For more information, visit and learn more at Media Contact Mac Haddowmhaddow@ ### SOURCE: American Kratom Association (AKA) Copyright 2025 EZ Newswire See release on EZ Newswire
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Drug more deadly than fentanyl is quietly killing hundreds
A relatively unknown and dangerous opioid is killing hundreds as authorities scramble to warn people about the drug, a new report reveals. Synthetic opioids known as nitazenes, which are stronger than fentanyl and mostly come from China, have killed hundreds of people in Europe, The Wall Street Journal reports. Just trace amounts of the drug can trigger a fatal overdose. Street nitazenes can be up to 250 times as potent as heroin, and up to five times as strong as fentanyl, the Journal reports. The opioid has been found mixed into several drugs, including heroin, counterfeit painkillers and anxiety medication, according to the outlet. Nitazenes are now spreading amid the ongoing opioid crisis in the U.S. While the crisis has affected the entire nation, it has particularly impacted West Virginia and other Appalachian communities. More than 800,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the U.S. between 1999 and 2023, according to the CDC. 'Synthetic opioids in the U.S. have not been driven by demand, they have been driven wholesale by supply,' Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Journal . 'If large criminal groups such as Albanian mafia groups, Turkish criminal groups or Italian or Mexican groups get into supplying nitazenes to Europe on a large scale, we can anticipate a massive public healthcare catastrophe.' Drug cartels in Mexico could 'easily' use their existing contacts in China-based suppliers to bring the opioids into the U.S., the Drug Enforcement Administration warned last year. However, at the time of the report, Mexican authorities had not seized any nitazene or nitazene-fentanyl mixtures in Mexico. Only 12 percent of nitazene exhibits analyzed by the DEA 'came from Southwest Border states,' the report said. U.S. authorities reported last year that they found nitazenes in at least 4,300 drug seizures since 2019, according to the Journal. Identifying the drug can be difficult, given that many overdose toxicology tests don't include nitazenes, the Journal reports. As a result, nitazenes are likely much more prevalent than official numbers might suggest, and the current death toll is likely an undercount. Nitazenes have never been approved for medical use and were first developed in Switzerland in the 1950s as an alternative to morphine, according to a September 2024 report by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission. The commission operates under the Organization of American States, a group of 34 nations that includes the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The opioids 'emerged more widely on the illicit drug market in Europe' in 2019, the commission said. Since then, the drugs have been identified on nearly every continent. Anne Jacques of North Wales told the Journal her son died of a nitazene overdose in 2023, explaining she felt like he had been 'murdered.' Jacques was initially told that her son, a healthy opera singer, died of cardiac arrest. When police found Xanax tablets in his room and evidence on his phone that he may have purchased the pills illegally, she researched drug contaminants and asked a coroner to test for nitazene. Seven months after her son's death, police told Jacques her son's pills had been contaminated with the opioid, the Journal reports. 'I basically had to investigate my own son's death,' Jacques said. Nitazenes could be the 'biggest public health crisis for people who use drugs in the U.K. since the AIDS crisis in the 1980s,' Vicki Markiewicz, executive director for the drug and alcohol treatment organization Change Grow Live, told the Journal.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US health officials crack down on kratom-related products after complaints from supplement industry
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials are warning Americans about the risks of an opioid-related ingredient increasingly added to energy drinks, gummies and supplements sold at gas stations and convenience stores, recommending a nationwide ban. The chemical, known as 7- hydroxymitragynine, is a component of kratom, a plant native to Southeast Asia that has gained popularity in the U.S. as an unapproved treatment for pain, anxiety and drug dependence. In recent months, dietary supplement companies that sell kratom have been urging the Food and Drug Administration to crack down on the products containing 7-OH, portraying it as a dangerously concentrated, synthetic form of the original ingredient. The FDA action 'is not focused on natural kratom leaf products," according to a statement Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The agency said it was releasing a report to educate about the risks of '7-OH and its distinction from the kratom plant leaf.' Regulators are also recommending that the ingredient be placed on the federal government's most restrictive list of illegal drugs, which includes LSD and heroin. '7-OH is an opioid that can be more potent than morphine," said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. "We need regulation and public education to prevent another wave of the opioid epidemic.' The agency's recommendation will be reviewed by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which sets federal rules for high-risk drugs including prescription medicines and illicit substances. A national ban wouldn't take effect until the agency drafts and finalizes new rules governing the ingredient. Federal regulators have been scrutinizing kratom for about a decade after reports of addiction, injury and overdose. But users and distributors have long opposed efforts to regulate it, saying kratom could be a safer alternative to opioid painkillers that sparked the ongoing drug addiction epidemic. Last month, the FDA issued warning letters to seven companies selling drinks, gummies and powders infused with 7-OH. Regulators said the products violated FDA rules because they have not been evaluated for safety and, in some cases, claimed to treat medical conditions, including pain, arthritis and anxiety. Supplement executives quickly applauded the move. The FDA "demonstrated the exact kind of data-driven, proactive regulatory excellence needed to safeguard unwitting consumers across the U.S.,' said Ryan Niddel of Diversified Botanics, a Utah-based company that sells kratom supplements. An industry group, the American Kratom Association, has lobbied Congress for years against restrictions on the plant. Legislation supported by the group would prohibit the FDA from regulating kratom more strictly than food and dietary supplements. In recent years, the association has lobbied at the state level for bills that limit synthetic 7-OH products. On Tuesday, a rival group that supports the availability of 7-OH drugs criticized the government's move, pointing to the influence of kratom suppliers. 'Big kratom trade groups have spent years blaming 7-OH for harms caused by their own unregulated products, because it threatens their market share,' the Holistic Alternative Recovery Trust stated in an emailed message. Nearly a decade ago, the federal government came close to banning kratom. In 2016, the DEA announced plans to add it to the government's most restrictive schedule 1, reserved for drugs that have no medical use and a high potential for abuse. But the plan stalled after a flood of public complaints, including a letter signed by more than 60 members of Congress. The FDA then began studying the ingredient, concluding in 2018 that kratom contains many of the same chemicals as opioids, the addictive class of drugs that includes painkillers like OxyContin as well as heroin and fentanyl. Since then, FDA regulators have continued to issue warnings about cases of injury, addiction and death with kratom supplements, which are usually sold in capsules or powders. In recent months, the FDA has also issued warnings on other unapproved drugs sold as supplements or energy drinks, including the antidepressant tianeptine. Sometimes referred to collectively as 'gas station heroin,' the drugs have been restricted by several states, but they are not scheduled at the federal level. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
FDA to announce crackdown on synthetic substance derived from kratom
Health officials plan to announce measures Tuesday to crack down on an opioid-like substance found in tablets, gummies and drinkable shots commonly sold in convenience stores. The Department of Health and Human Services said in an advisory that it is targeting potentially dangerous products made of 7-OH, a potent substance synthesized from a compound in the kratom leaf, which grows on trees native to Southeast Asia. The Food and Drug Administration, researchers and kratom companies have grown increasingly alarmed by the rise of 7-OH products they say are distinct from all-natural plant teas and powders.
