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Illicit opioids at center of deaths well before policy leaders took notice
Author(s) -
Enos Gary
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
alcoholism and drug abuse weekly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1556-7591
pISSN - 1042-1394
DOI - 10.1002/adaw.32516
Subject(s) - notice , heroin , fentanyl , medical prescription , opioid , illicit drug , medicine , opioid epidemic , business , medical emergency , psychiatry , political science , drug , anesthesia , pharmacology , law , receptor
Research published this month on opioid‐related fatal overdoses in Massachusetts points to the need for timely information on drug use trends to avoid policy decisions that could end up being targeted in improper directions. The study found an overwhelming presence of illicit heroin and fentanyl in 2013–15, a period in which most of the attention of the state's policymakers had remained focused on a prescription opioid problem that by then had begun giving way to illegal drugs.