Scientists take a big step toward building a better opioid

[Peter1469]

Scientists take a big step toward building a better opioid

Apparently this new pain med will go a long way to preventing addition to current opiods.

For the first time, scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and collaborators solved the crystal structure of the activated kappa opioid receptor bound to a morphine derivative. They then created a new drug-like compound that activates only that receptor, a key step in the development of new pain medications.

[waltky]

States with legal marijuana issue fewer opioid prescriptions...

Places with legal marijuana issue fewer opioid prescriptions, large studies find
Apr 4, 2018 : As more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana, doctors may be replacing opioid prescriptions with suggestions to visit a local marijuana dispensary. Two papers published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine analyzing more than five years of Medicare Part D and Medicaid prescription data found that after states legalized weed, the number of opioid prescriptions and the daily dose of opioids went way down.

That indicates that some people may be shifting away from prescription drugs to cannabis, though the studies can’t say whether this substitution is actually happening or if patients or doctors are the driving force. “In this time when we are so concerned — rightly so — about opiate misuse and abuse and the mortality that’s occurring, we need to be clear-eyed and use evidence to drive our policies,” said W. David Bradford, an economist at the University of Georgia and an author of one of the studies. “If you’re interested in giving people options for pain management that don’t bring the particular risks that opiates do, states should contemplate turning on dispensary-based cannabis policies.” Previous research has pointed to a similar correlation. A 2014 paper found that states with medical marijuana laws had nearly 25 percent fewer deaths from opioid overdoses.

But the new research is the first to connect marijuana legalization to prescription painkillers with such large data sets. One of the two new studies found that people on Medicare filled 14 percent fewer prescriptions for opioids after medical marijuana laws were passed in their states. The second study found that Medicaid enrollees filled nearly 40 fewer opioid prescriptions per 1,000 people each year after their state passed any law making cannabis accessible — with greater drops seen in states that legalized both medical and recreational marijuana.

A woman holds marijuana for sale at the MedMen store in West Hollywood, California

Those findings are somewhat positive from a public health angle. Opioids, in addition to an addictive potential much greater than that of marijuana, have other unappealing side effects. “The effect of opioids chronically — they wreak havoc on your GI tract,” said Marie Hayes, a psychologist at the University of Maine. Of course, medical cannabis is a drug with side effects, too. Obviously people can get high, though that does depend on the concentration of the psychoactive compound, tetrahydrocannabinol, in the strain or formulation that someone is using.

Marijuana’s safety profile isn’t really at issue. “People are convinced of its safety,” Hayes said. But there’s just not a lot of evidence supporting marijuana as a chronic pain treatment in its own right. “I would say the evidence has been very modest up until about 10 years ago, because nobody would fund the research,” she said. Still, opioids as a chronic pain treatment have a checkered reputation as well: One recent study found opioids didn’t provide any more relief for chronic arthritis pain than over-the-counter painkillers.

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[waltky]

Purdue Pharma to Pay for Overdose-Antidote Development...

Major Opioid Maker to Pay for Overdose-Antidote Development
September 05, 2018 - A company whose prescription opioid marketing practices are being blamed for sparking the addiction and overdose crisis says it's helping to fund an effort to make a lower-cost overdose antidote.

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma announced Wednesday that it's making a $3.4 million grant to Harm Reduction Therapeutics, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, to help develop a low-cost naloxone nasal spray. The announcement comes as lawsuits from local governments blaming Purdue, based in Stamford, Connecticut, and other companies in the drug industry for using deceptive marketing practices to encourage heavy prescribing of the powerful and addictive painkillers. Last week, the number of lawsuits against the industry being overseen by a federal judge topped 1,000.

Purdue Pharma offices are seen in Stamford, Connecticut

The Cleveland-based judge, Dan Polster, is pushing the industry to settle with the plaintiffs — mostly local governments and Native American tribes — and with state governments, most of which have sued in state court or are conducting a joint investigation. Hundreds of other local governments are also suing in state courts across the country. The sides have had regular settlement discussions, but it's not clear when a deal might be struck in the case, which is complicated by the number of parties and questions on how to assign blame.


The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that drug overdoses killed a record 72,000 Americans last year. The majority of the deaths involved opioids. But a growing number of them are from illicit synthetic drugs, including fentanyl, rather than prescription opioids such as OxyContin or Vicodin. Governments are asking for changes in how opioids are marketed, and for help paying for treatment and the costs of ambulance runs, child welfare systems, jails and other expenses associated with the opioid crisis.

A police officer demonstrates the use of naloxone in Millersville, Maryland

Polster is expected to rule in coming weeks on motions from drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies to dismiss thee claims. Trials in some of the cases — being used to test issues common to many of them — are now scheduled to begin in September 2019. Purdue agreed to pay $634 million in fines back in 2007 to settle charges that the company downplayed the risk of addiction and abuse of its blockbuster painkiller OxyContin starting in the 1990s. It's facing similar accusations again. Earlier this year, the privately held company stopped marketing OxyContin to doctors.


Naloxone

[Brett Nortje]

If it is a pain killer that you seek, and, pain killers include headache tablets, we need to observe that the muscles feel the pain through the nerves. This is a stimulation of heat, so, logically you could make the pain go away by nullifying heat, yes? This means that the nerves could be 'settled' by 'adding protons,' or, cations, yes? This means you could rub a magnet over your face, I am not sure the pole, and, then eradicate a headache, or, muscle swelling quickly.