too potent and seldom used anymore.
Officials and law enforcement are scrambling to provide solutions to the epidemic even as the market continues to be flooded by novel opioids designed to produce the same effects as illegal drugs, but different enough in chemical composition to avoid pre-existing legislative control.
Legislators are forced to play a “cat and mouse game” with manufacturers of these illicit, synthetic opioids. However, education could be the key to preventing more overdoses. A recent editorial in the international journal Annals of Emergency Medicine stated thoughtful questioning in the emergency room, coupled with public health intelligence and public education can help curb the rates of fatal overdoses attributed to these drugs that “are not for human consumption.”
