iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Sometime next week (second full week of May), CDC will publish 2024 predicted overdose numbers. Now is the time to get ready to tell your story. This guide will help with talking points. We expect a -27% drop (give or take 1.1%). opioiddatalab.ghost.io/od-data-own-...

opioiddatalab.ghost.io

OD Data: Own Your Impact

What to expect from 2024 CDC overdose mortality data. AI prompt and talking points for advocacy

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

OD deaths have been dropping in *every* state, for years. Fentanyl, xylazine, (dex)medetomidine are still around. We have much more to do. www.npr.org/2025/03/07/n... @brianmannadk.bsky.social See the full data deep dive here: opioiddatalab.ghost.io/peak-od-phen...

npr.org

Deadliest phase of fentanyl crisis eases, as all states see recovery

In some parts of the U.S., drug deaths have plunged to levels not seen since the fentanyl crisis exploded. Addiction experts say communities still face big challenges.

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

I made this video about what is really going on with these “fentanyl exposure” stories because I got tired of explaining the same thing over and over: www.youtube.com/watch?v=215h...

youtube.com

The Myth(s) of Fentanyl Exposure

YouTube video by Ryan Marino, MD

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Sheila Vakharia PhD MSW @myharmreduction.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Really looking forward to kicking off our four-part spring series, "New Drugs and New Markets." Join us on March 13th 3-5pm EST for our Keynote with @nabarund.bsky.social and our first panel discussion! Please share widely and register here: bit.ly/NewDrugs1

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Manisha Krishnan @manishakrishnan.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

As Canada installs a fentanyl czar, it is also: -closing safe drug consumption sites -gutting drug decriminalization -forcing drug users into treatment -restricting safe supply With Trudeau leaving, I wrote about the end of progressive drug policy: hatchetmedia.substack.com/p/manisha-kr...

hatchetmedia.substack.com

Manisha Krishnan: A Fentanyl Czar and the End of Progressive Drug Policy

Like previous crackdowns, this will likely make the crisis worse

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

New analysis of overdose mortality, which has been dropping in most states since 2022-23. Surprisingly, 19 states are now near or below 2020 baseline. But, we still have a lot to do because too many people we love are still being harmed and dying. opioiddatalab.ghost.io/peak-od-phen...

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Newly detected drugs, BTMPS receptors, Captagon, fentanyl and coke in marine animals, highdose naloxone, Remedy Alliance data, application for people with lived experience opioiddatalab.ghost.io/december-new...

opioiddatalab.ghost.io

UNC Street Drug Lab December 2024 Newsletter

UNC Watchlist, newly detected drugs, BTMPS receptors, Captagon, fentanyl and coke in marine animals, expert statement on highdose naloxone, data from Remedy Alliance, and an application deadline for p...

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

Here are the 9 new-to-us substances we saw in unregulated street drugs last month. Full investigations at opioiddatalab.ghost.io/recent-drugs…

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

Appreciated these anachronistic pharma ads for pain medications from the early 2000s. buff.ly/414cj4q From Ben Westhoff via the Drugs + Hip-Hop substack

buff.ly

Slideshow: Opioid Advertisements From the Height Of the Crisis

The opioid crisis didn’t happen by accident.

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Here are the #nitazenes we have seen recently at the UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab. The live report data tracker is updated every night buff.ly/3CVpRoQ if you want to see the latest

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 03/12/2024

Drug checking behind the scenes! Here's what happens when you run so many dope samples on your GCMS that you wear out the ionization source buff.ly/4fKhbAq #massspec #chemistry #drugchecking

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Maia Szalavitz @maiasz.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

more harm, less harm reduction: why the fall in overdose deaths is not being seen in Black, Brown and American Indian communities, my latest www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/o... special thanks to @rnbluthenthal.bsky.social @nabarund.bsky.social & Jon Zibbell & Dan Ciccarone

nytimes.com

Opinion | Why Drug Overdose Deaths Are Dropping for Some, Rising for Others

Drug overdose deaths are finally declining. But it’s going to take work to keep this trend going.

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Why do US chemists use different names for street drugs than the rest of the world? Here's 3 examples from new detections in October: N-desalkylflurazepam = norfludiazepam etodesnitazene = etazene phenazolam = clobromazolam Explanation in our newsletter

buff.ly

UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab: November 2024 Newsletter

Newly detected substances, BTMPS mystery solved, Watchlist, opioid settlement funding, Black Harm Reduction Network

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

This is a great upcoming NC event to meet advocates who have been helping people with chronic pain survive in the era of forced tapers and abrupt discontinuations of medications.

buff.ly

N.C. Meet-and-Greet

The Doctor Patient Forum's next in-person Meet, Greet, and Eat! Claudia Merandi will give the following presentation:

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Spironolactone (gout medicine) in street drugs? Whyyyyy? Photo summarizes what we think may have happened Full story in our newsletter (that you should definitely subscribe to): opioiddatalab.ghost.io/november-new... #medsky #harmreduction

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Erin Fanning Madden, PhD, MPH @efanningmadden.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Loving the monthly Street Drug Analysis Lab newsletter from UNC led by @nabarund.bsky.social. It's an excellent resource to learn about what's going on in our illicit drug supply. For example, they're tracking rises in sedatives like (dex)medetomidine in fentanyl samples. opioiddatalab.ghost.io

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Our November newsletter just went live: BTMPS mystery solved, new nitazene and (dex)medetomidine data trackers, 13 newly detected substances, Watchlist updates, opioid settlement funding, Black Harm Reduction Network opioiddatalab.ghost.io/november-new...

opioiddatalab.ghost.io

UNC Street Drug Analysis Lab: November 2024 Newsletter

Newly detected substances, BTMPS mystery solved, Watchlist, opioid settlement funding, Black Harm Reduction Network

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Monica Barratt @monicabarratt.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

I don’t really understand why people want to use a completely random mix of unknown substances either!

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alex @unfinishedlines.club · 21/11/2024

you think that's bad? the original spanish name for this combo is tucibi, the common pronunciation of another psychedelic 2C-B it has never contained 2C-B in Colombia to differentiate it from 2C-B people are now calling it "Nexus"... which is... you guessed it a 90% slang term for 2C-B

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Hey global pharmacovigilance friends -- does anyone have access to a global database of OTC excipients? I would like to know if acetyl tributyl citrate is used as a coating on phenacetin tablets. acetyl tributyl citrate: PubChem 6505 #pharmacovigilance #excipients #pharmaceutical

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Ketamine overdose deaths report. Only n=24 from July 2019 to June 2023 as the ONLY drug involved. Yeah ketamine is much safer than a lot of other drugs, but it seems possible there is a max someone should take, especially if physically exerting in other ways.

buff.ly

Notes from the Field: Ketamine Detection and Involvement ..

This report describes the detection of ketamine in overdose ..

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scada-steve.bsky.social @scada-steve.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

My 1st Bluesky post & delighted by the timing. The Loop granted 1st Home Office licence to carry out year-round in-house rapid drug testing at 2 of the UK’s biggest clubs, Drumsheds & The Warehouse Project. 💜♾️💜 #HarmReduction #TimeToTest #JustSayKnow www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

bbc.co.uk

Drumsheds and Warehouse Project bring in drug testing

The venues, in Manchester and London, invite charity The Loop to test drugs behind the scenes.

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Jennifer J. Carroll, not that kind of doctor @jencarroll.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

It's like the onion predicted their takeover of Infowars a year and a half ago

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Another opioid settlement finalized for North Carolina, this time with Kroger. buff.ly/4hNjnZr Regardless of HOW we got here, let's do what we can use this money to actually help.

buff.ly

Attorney General Josh Stein finalizes Kroger opioid settlement

As a part of the agreement, North Carolina will get $40 million that will help lessen the opioid epidemic.

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

My first boss told me the most important role of a supervisor is to protect your team (or team's time) from interference from extraneous demands, originating both internally and externally. This is my avatar, then, from 'Sergio Saves the Game!' my most favorite kids book, by Edel Rodriguez.

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Raimondo Bruno @psychopharmres.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Yay! I get an Oprah moment.... You get on the list! You get on the list! And so do you! go.bsky.app/Q9bBy2H

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alex @unfinishedlines.club · 17/11/2024

ok this one's for the #Drugsky and #harmreduction folks made this years ago, and almost nothing has changed

Types of Drug Policy Paper (left to right, row by row)

Cannabis the gateway drug of youth in 2021
THIS IS A NOVEL INTERVENTION, BECAUSE IT'S IN NORTH AMERICA NOT EUROPE WE'VE ISOLATED ALPHABETAMINE FROM "ALPHABET SOUP"
Hey have you heard of Vancouver
We have an idea about something drug users have been saying since 1915
PROHIBITION Became widely adopted for stupid and/or evil reasons
Five years of brutal, intensive ethnographic work suggests it sucks to have no money
OUR NEW MODEL USING THIS BAD MEASURE WE MADE UP SHOWS SAVING DRUG USERS LIVES IS BAD, ACTUALLY
DRUGS: FOUCAULT, DELEUZE, LATOUR, BARAD FOUCAULT, DELEUZE, LATOUR, BARAD
FOR THE 1000TH TIME: THE U.S. USES THE DRUG WAR TO CREATE VIOLENCE IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
THE BRAIN DISEASE MODEL: WHY WE HAVE NO EVIDENCE, BUT WHY IT'S DEF TRUE
A PILOT STUDY OF PILOT STUDIES: THIS EVIDENCE WILL REALLY CHANGE THE GAME

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Teresa Winstead @drteresa-winst.bsky.social · 08/11/2024

Still pretty new here, and don't really know how ⬇️this works, but hoping ❤️‍🔥Harm redux folks will add to/share this "starter pack" go.bsky.app/LbHM54P

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Preview for our November newsletter: the 11 new substances we found in the drug supply in October. Each has a story and context we’ll go into, so sign up now opioiddatalab.ghost.io

These are the substances we detected for the first time in drug samples sent to our lab. These were certainly circulating before then, and wasn't necessarily found by themselves.

pyrazolam
canrenone
desalkyflurazepam
spironolactone
atropine
fluoxetine
delta-4(8)-iso-THC
AB-MDMSBA
N-(1-phenethyl-4-piperidyl)-N-benzylpropanamide
etodesnitazene
phenazolam

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MwahahahahahadScientist @mads100tist.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

The Onion should buy Elsevier next

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Claire Zagorski, PhD, MSc, EMT-P @clairezagorski.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

This came up again today - Is xylazine like krokodil in that they both are associated with skin wounds? No. Xylazine’s wound etiology isn’t super clear yet. But krokodil (which is clandestinely-made desomorphine) causes skin wounds because of a chemical left behind during its synthesis.

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

"Our hypothesis is that something has changed in the drug supply. This kind of pronounced shift, something that happens suddenly, if numbers had suddenly shot up, we would definitely be pointing to a change in the drug supply to explain it," said Dasgupta. www.cbsnews.com/news/opioid-...

cbsnews.com

Opioid overdose deaths drop for 12th straight month, now lowest since 2020

Overdose deaths have slowed 18% since a peak last year, the CDC estimates.

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Dr. Nab @nabarund.bsky.social · 20/11/2023

Amazing to see Louise Vincent of NC Survivors Union repping drug user unions on the national stage. So inspiring! Great story by Brian Mann NPR www.npr.org/2023/11/19/1...

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