This week’s NDEWS Hotspot Alerts report includes 25 different counties with a higher-than-expected number of nonfatal drug-related 911 dispatch overdoses from November 25 to December 1, 2024.

Click here to read the full report.

Click here to learn more about NDEWS Hotspot Alerts.

NDEWS Co-Director Joseph Palamar, PhD, was recently interviewed by CBS News in a segment titled "Law enforcement raises warning over so-called pink cocaine." Palamar can be seen in the segment standing in front of a display of the NDEWS Web Monitoring Team's most recent report on pink cocaine, or tusi, as he explains how increased chatter on Reddit can be used to predict drug trends. NDEWS published its first alert on pink cocaine in February 2023.

Watch the video here.

Click here to learn more about NDEWS Online Monitoring.

The Center for Forensic Science Research & Education (CFSRE) this week released a public alert for ortho-Methylfentanyl, a novel synthetic opioid that the center reports has been increasingly appearing in the North American recreational drug supply. The CFSRE’s lab first detected the substance, which is structurally similar to fentanyl, in Canada in November 2023. The emerging substance has since been detected in more than 200 forensic samples from the U.S. and Canada. According to the center, the substance is often identified alongside fentanyl and/or para-fluorofentanyl.

Read more here.

NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow recently posted an article on her blog titled “Syringe services for people who inject drugs are enormously effective but remain underused,” in which she highlights studies challenging the commonly held belief that syringe services programs encourage more drug use and result in increased crime.

In the post, which was published in the days leading up to World AIDS Day, Volkow highlights how these programs reduce the transmission of infectious diseases. She also points out less direct ways that syringe services programs contribute to harm reduction, such as linking people to effective treatment and helping to prevent overdose deaths.

Read the article here.

Researchers from Enalare Therapeutics Inc. and Temple University School of Pharmacy recently published a study in Cureus titled “ENA-001 Reverses Xylazine/Fentanyl Combination-Induced Respiratory Depression in Rats: A Qualitative Pilot Study.” The study evaluated the potential of a single intravenous injection of ENA-001 to counteract respiratory depression caused by a combination of xylazine and fentanyl in rats. ENA-001 is a respiratory stimulant that not only reverses the respiratory depression caused by opioids but also that caused by non-opioids such as xylazine. Researchers found that the drug reversed respiratory depression within 5 minutes.

Read the study here.

While U.S. drug overdose deaths involving illegally manufactured fentanyls began declining in late 2023, there was a sharp increase in overdose deaths with carfentanil detected, according to an article titled “Detection of Illegally Manufactured Fentanyls and Carfentanil in Drug Overdose Deaths — United States, 2021–2024” that was published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Read more here.

Date: December 12, 2024, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m. ET

Location: Virtual

Learn more here. 

Dates: January 13 – 17, 2025, 8:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. ET daily

Location: Virtual

This year’s symposium, which features presentations by scientists from academia, government, and industry, will focus on knowledge, best practices, and advances in science that can help improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Learn more here. 

You can share the NDEWS Weekly Briefing with friends, colleagues, and others who would benefit from information on recent and relevant news, articles, and data related to novel drug trends in the U.S. and globally by clicking here.

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If you miss or want to learn more about NDEWS Original Content, you can find our archived content on the NDEWS website:

     • NDEWS Hotspot Alerts using substance-related 911 EMS dispatch data
     • NDEWS Rapid Street Reporting (RSR) survey data reports
     • NDEWS Web Monitoring Team Reddit Alerts
     • NDEWS Sentinel Site Reports
     • Previous issues of the NDEWS Weekly Briefings

The Weekly Briefing is a newsletter published each week by the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) Coordinating Center, which is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (U01DA051126) to the University of Florida (PI: Cottler, Co-Is: Goldberger, Nixon, Striley), New York University (Deputy Director: Palamar), and Florida Atlantic University (Co-I: Barenholtz). Any item may be reproduced provided the source is acknowledged.