Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drug Users Now Seeking Out Fentanyl To Smoke
NBC News: Once Feared, Illicit Fentanyl Is Now A Drug Of Choice For Many Opioid Users
One of the deadliest street drugs, illicit fentanyl, has transitioned from a hidden killer that people often hope to avoid to one that many drug users now seek out on its own. (Edwards, 8/7)
The Washington Post: It’s About To Get Easier To Access Affordable Naloxone
The first shipment of naloxone in a new national effort to reverse overdoses arrived somewhat unceremoniously. Delayed by shipping wait times and packaged in nondescript cardboard, 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s injectable drug were delivered Wednesday by a driver who steered two massive pallets into an unassuming warehouse that is home to the newly created nonprofit Remedy Alliance, which is expected to distribute mass amounts of the drug that reverses opioid overdoses to smaller community groups. (Kornfield, 8/7)
In other health and wellness news —
The Boston Globe: First-Of-Its-Kind Law Improves College Access For Students With Autism, Intellectual Disabilities
More than a decade in the making, the breakthrough legislation will require all of the state’s public college campuses to offer accommodations to young people whose severe disabilities prevent them from earning a standard high school diploma, allowing them to take classes as nondegree-seeking students and join extracurricular activities alongside their peers — experiences that can transform their lives for the better, according to experts. (Russell, 8/7)
The Atlantic: Fish Oil Is Good! No, Bad! No, Good! No, Wait
Tens of thousands of studies later, things haven’t gotten all that much clearer: We still don’t have anything close to a firm grasp of what fish oil can do and what it cannot. And lately, things have only gotten weirder. (Stern, 8/5)
KHN: Tribe Embraces Recreational Marijuana Sales On Reservation Where Alcohol Is Banned
In a growing number of U.S. states, people can both drink alcohol and legally smoke recreational marijuana. In others, they can use alcohol but not pot. But on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the opposite is true: Marijuana is legal, but booze is banned. Citizens of the Oglala Sioux Tribe overwhelmingly voted in 2020 to legalize recreational and medical marijuana on their sprawling reservation, which has prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol for more than 100 years. (Zionts, 8/8)
