Pharmacy

I'd be interested to know what field you guys are in! I'd bet mostly RPh/PharmD and CPhT. I'm sure we even have a few from other medical fields and just curious.

Drop a comment if you'd like and I'll update once we get several answers

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/121147

Seven years have passed since the FDA gave its blessing for the Targeting Aging with Metformin (TAME) clinical trial, the first trial to target the effects of aging. TAME is a double blind, placebo-controlled, multi-center study designed to evaluate whether the diabetes drug Metformin can protect against age-related conditions such as cancer, dementia or cardiovascular disease in non-diabetic study participants. The goal of the trial is to establish an indication for aging, which the American Federation of Aging Research refers to as a “proof of concept” that aging is an appropriate drug target.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/114070

Now, the drugmaker said it expects all of its Bicillin L-A (penicillin G benzathine injectable suspension) pediatric (600,000 units/mL) prefilled syringes will be unavailable in mid-2023, and all Bicillin C-R (penicillin G benzathine and penicillin G procaine injectable suspension) solutions will "deplete" in the third quarter of 2023.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/108735

• Pfizer will run out of several doses of penicillin, which treat syphilis, strep throat, and other infections, later this year as shortages ripple across the US supply chain.

• Cancer drugs, including widely used cisplatin and carboplatin, are in such short supply that doctors are rationing care, asking patients to drive long distances for treatment, or turning to alternative treatments with riskier side effects.

• Cocoa prices have soared 44% over the last nine months to seven-year highs as the global cocoa bean deficit worsens for the second consecutive year.

• Sugar prices hit decade highs on global shortage fears in April. And robusta coffee prices hit a record high days ago on supply fears.

• The number of people facing acute food insecurity in 58 countries and territories in 2022 was 258 million, and this was the highest in the seven-year history of the report, signifying a deteriorating trend in global acute food insecurity. In 2021, 193 million people in 53 countries and territories faced acute hunger, so the figure for 2022 reflected a 34 percent jump within just one year.

This has been shared a bazillion times on other platforms but will always be relevant unless PBMs get eradicated like the bottom feeders they are

Portugal's drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the E.U. average and stands at one-fiftieth of the United States’. Its rate of HIV infection has dropped from 104.2 new cases per million in 2000 to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use.

I personally can't get past the price

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/65581

This episode could save your or your loved one's life.

Fentanyl is killing American young people at a rate of 300 a day. We are losing American's faster than we lost our men during World War II. Many parents don't know the real danger of the drug. I spell what you need to know.

• Why do people overdose?
• What does an overdose look like and what do you do to save someone?
• What does Fentanyl look like and what form does it come in?
• What is China's role in this?
• Is this an act of war on America?
• We expose the "contact" myth about Fentanyl that even has police confused.
• You can not die from simply coming in contact or breathing Fentanyl. The government lied to us again.
• The Government lie about a "grain of sand" can kill you, is actually getting people killed. The myth is putting people in danger. I will explain why and why the government should be ashamed of itself.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/73674

A growing body of evidence linking pot use during adolescence to both mental illness and changes in the reward circuitry of the brain that likely contribute to later addictions to other drugs, and the stage is set for yet another youth mental-health crisis on top of a wave of depression, anxiety and attempted self-harm thanks to disastrous school-closure policies during the pandemic.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/75217

Fentanyl-related deaths among infants (children under age one) quadrupled from 2019 to 2021; more than tripled among children between the ages of 1 and 4 and nearly quadrupled among children between the ages of 5 and 14.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/77102

Anyone looking for public health campaigns that actually discourage drug use — similar to the high-profile prime-time ads warning against cigarette smoking — would have looked in vain this past year in New York City.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79626

British Columbia was granted permission by the government to try out the plan for three years, when the drugs will still be illegal but those carrying less than 2.5 grams will not be arrested, charged or have the drugs confiscated.

Instead, residents carrying the drugs will be offered information on health and social services.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80601

The research team discovered that individuals who used cannabis long-term (for several years or more) and heavily (at least weekly, though a majority in their study used more than four times a week) exhibited impairments across several domains of cognition.

Long-term cannabis users’ IQs declined by 5.5 points on average from childhood, and there were deficits in learning and processing speed compared to people that did not use cannabis. The more frequently an individual used cannabis, the greater the resulting cognitive impairment, suggesting a potential causative link.

The impact of cannabis on cognitive impairment was greater than that of alcohol or tobacco use. Long-term cannabis users also had smaller hippocampi (the region of the brain responsible for learning and memory). Interestingly, individuals who used cannabis less than once a week with no history of developing dependence did not have cannabis-related cognitive deficits. This suggests there is a range of recreational use that may not lead to long-term cognitive issues.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/82032

Boston Mayor’s finance director charged with money laundering in prison drug smuggling scheme

Freda Brasfield, the Administration and Finance Director in Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s office, was arraigned Friday on money laundering charges in an alleged prison drug smuggling scheme.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/85675

About time

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/85847

According to the 13-page complaint, the 64-year-old allegedly received at least 61 packages at her San Jose home from various countries — including China, Canada and India — between October 2015 and January 2023.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/88833

The companies run more than 90% of the nation’s drug and medical supply chain and have been accused of allowing the proliferation and abuse of prescription opioids.

The companies failed for more than a decade to track suspicious orders or increases in opioid use among purchasers, despite likely criminal activity from some physicians in overprescribing the drugs.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/88947

The proportion of new schizophrenia cases that may be attributed to cannabis use disorder has consistently increased over the past five decades.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/90326

The long-term impacts of semaglutide, especially on the brain, remain unknown. In diabetes and obesity, semaglutide is supposed to be a lifelong medication, and its most dramatic effects are quickly reversed when people go off. “The weight comes back; the suppression of appetite goes away,”

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/29755

The stark reality is that enforcement of drug laws isn’t the answer to the fentanyl crisis—it’s the very reason we have a fentanyl crisis.

That crisis is also driven by regulatory crackdowns on prescription opiates, which drive both addicts and those with legitimate needs away from pills of uniform quality and dosage and into the dicey, deadly realm of black market alternatives.

Though it’s contrary to intuition and a shock to many people’s sensibilities, the proper response to the fentanyl crisis and other collateral damage of the war on drugs is clear: across-the-board drug legalization.

That isn’t an endorsement of drug abuse any more than legalized alcohol endorses alcohol abuse — which, it should be noted, has a death toll that rivals if not exceeds that of drug abuse.

Rather, full legalization of both production and possession is the logical position for those who understand that policies must be judged not by their intentions, but by their results.

Anybody have any links for some free technician Continuing Education recognised by the NABP in the US? Thanks in advance!

Credit due to u/Resident-Ad-185 on ye olde reddit

Credit to /u/pixiehearted on ye olde Reddit