This Week’s Focus: Overdoses Across the United States This week’s briefing focuses on overdoses across the United States. Data-driven insight from our latest NDEWS Special Report looks at EMS encounters for nonfatal overdoses at the county level across the US and breaks down the trends of the top-10 counties.
This Week’s Focus: Xylazine This week’s briefing focuses on xylazine, a veterinary tranquilizer that has been found in the illicit opioid supply. Xylazine is a central nervous system depressant that can cause painful and difficult-to-treat skin and muscle sores, which can lead to infection, necrosis, and even amputation of affected…
This Week’s Focus: NDEWS Early Warning in Action — Insights from the NDEWS Early Warning Network including Sentinel Sites Report and Rapid Street Reporting data This week, the NDEWS Weekly Briefing focuses on our Sentinel Site Director (SSD) report and our newest Rapid Street Reporting (RSR) findings from our weekend…
This Week’s Focus: Psilocybin This week’s briefing focuses on psilocybin, a chemical in certain types of fresh or dried mushrooms, also known as shrooms or magic mushrooms. The mushrooms cause behavioral changes and changes in how a person perceives reality; they may see colors, shapes, or scenes that aren’t really…
This Week’s Focus: Ketamine Our focus for this week’s NDEWS Weekly Briefing is on the trends of non-medical use, detection, and the risks associated with overdoses involving ketamine.We feature our latest NDEWS Special Report that focuses on EMS encounters for nonfatal ketamine-related overdoses in the US, in addition…
A recently published study by NDEWS Deputy Director Dr. Joseph Palamar examined trends in awareness that cocaine can be adulterated with fentanyl among nightclub and festival attendees in New York City. Results suggest that knowledge that cocaine can be adulterated with fentanyl is increasing in this high-risk population. Dr. Palamar…
A study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence by NDEWS researchers, led by Co-Investigator Dr. Joseph Palamar, examined quarterly national seizure data from High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas to determine the number of drug seizures in the US containing fentanyl from January 2018 through December 2021. Read the full study here.For…
A new NDEWS paper, in collaboration with NPS Discovery, is now available in International Journal of Drug Policy. Led by NDEWS Co-I Dr. Elan Barenholtz and Dr. Alex Krotulski from NPS Discovery, the study evaluated the utility of using drug-related Reddit forums as an early indicator of future…
A new analysis of law enforcement drug seizures in five key regions of the United States, led by NDEWS Co-Investigator Dr. Joseph Palamar, found an increase in methamphetamine and marijuana confiscations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigators examined trends in seizures of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl within five High…
NDEWS was first funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) in 2014 to expand the longstanding Community Epidemiology Workgroup (CEWG). In April 2020, the second iteration of the NIDA-funded NDEWS was awarded to our team from the University of Florida, New York University, and Florida Atlantic University. NDEWS…
