FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone

Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by bravura on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:12PM (#34812984)

Also, Europe doesn't have a fentanyl crisis because we have cheap, pure heroin. The Afghani-Europe heroin pipeline is so old, tightly organized, and efficient that there is little need for an alternative.

By comparison, shipping heroin across the Pacific is costly risky business, because it's easier to detect and seize. Hence the need for fentanyl which is orders of magnitude stronger and can be created in impromptu labs.

This gets particularly dicey for every "party drug" users in the states, because a white powder that would be relatively harmless is subject to accidental cross-contamination. [edit based upon reading comments below: Yeah, if you live in the US and your friends take coke or ketamine, you should have Narcan.]

Opiate users are addicts but they're not stupid. Nearly all greatly prefer reliable heroin to the risk of OD'ing. Hence why fentanyl hasn't become a thing in Europe. A reputation for killing your customers is bad for business.

Bonus question: Why does Europe not have a methaphetamine crisis?

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by lazide on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:32PM (#34813200)

Because cocaine is easily available?

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by baremetal on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:17PM (#34813040)

>Bonus question: Why does Europe not have a methaphetamine crisis?

Because it has an amphetamine crisis?

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by selectodude on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @07:22PM (#34813090)

I thought all the kids do ketamine now.

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by Stagnant on Wednesday February 15, 2023 @08:54PM (#34813931)

I'm completely talking out of my ass here but I feel like how relatively uncommon meth is in EU compared to US has to do with ingredients being a lot harder to get in the EU area. Crystal is common in the US while in EU that is extremely rare, the meth on eu market is usually powder or rock.

I'm assuming most of crystal meth in the US comes from mexico and they don't bother to ship that much of it overseas as stuff like cocaine has higher profits and a bigger market.

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by Eisenstein on Thursday February 16, 2023 @12:59AM (#34815600)

> Bonus question: Why does Europe not have a methaphetamine crisis?

Not enough free space. It takes a lot of room to make meth because anyone nearby can easily tell.

It is going to change soon because Afghanistan is starting to make it.

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Re:FDA advisers recommend approval of over-the-counter naloxone by extraduder_ire on Thursday February 16, 2023 @02:24AM (#34816004)

> Bonus question: Why does Europe not have a methaphetamine crisis?

I've always thought that it was because all the precursors for meth get used to make MDMA.Though it's probably more of a culture/economic thing. Europe definitely has some meth in it.

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