An illegal fentanyl supply shock may have contributed to a dramatic decline in deaths

Summary author: Becky Ham

2026-01-08

(Press-News.org) After rising for decades in the United States, opioid overdose deaths have been declining dramatically since 2023, with the annual rate of fentanyl overdose deaths dropping by more than a third by the end of 2024. What’s behind this sudden decline? In this Policy Forum, Kasey Vangelov and colleagues evaluate the evidence for an international supply shock in fentanyl in 2023 and conclude that it could be responsible for the steep decline in overdose deaths. Studying the ups and downs of an illegal drug economy is difficult, but the researchers use data from several sources, including a spike in U.S.-based Reddit users’ reports of a fentanyl drought in mid-to-late 2023. Fentanyl seized during this period shows a concurrent decline in purity and seizures themselves fell during the period, despite being an intense focus of law enforcement. In Canada, supply indicators of fentanyl precursors from China declined at the same time. Together, this evidence indicates that supply disruption may be behind the drop off in fentanyl deaths. “The incentive to restore the illicit fentanyl trade will persist as long as there is demand for the drug …” Vangelov et al. write, adding that “…it may be wise to use the current drought as an opportunity to ramp up the prevention and treatment programs that have evidence of decreasing demand.”

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Some dogs can learn new words by eavesdropping on their owners

2026-01-08

“Honey, will you take Luna to the P-A-R-K?” both parents and dog owners know that some words should not be spoken, but only spelled, to prevent small ears from eavesdropping on the conversation. At the age of 1.5 years toddlers can already learn new words by overhearing other people. Now, a groundbreaking study published in Science reveals that a special group of dogs are also able to learn names for objects by overhearing their owners’ interactions. Similarly to 1.5 -year-old toddlers, that are equally good in ...

Scientists trace facial gestures back to their source. before a smile appears, the brain has already decided

2026-01-08

Every time we smile, grimace, or flash a quick look of surprise, it feels effortless, but the brain is quietly coordinating an intricate performance. This study shows that facial gestures aren’t controlled by two separate “systems” (one for deliberate expressions and one for emotional ones), as scientists long assumed. Instead, multiple face-control regions in the brain work together, using different kinds of signals: some are fast and shifting, like real-time choreography, while others are steadier, like a held intention. Remarkably, these brain patterns appear before the face even moves, meaning the brain starts ...

Is “Smoking Gun” evidence enough to prove scientific discovery?

2026-01-08

Embargoed: Not for Release Until 2:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time Thursday, 08 January 2026. A group of scientists, including Sergey Frolov, professor of physics at the University of Pittsburgh, and coauthors from Minnesota and Grenoble have undertaken several replication studies centered around topological effects in nanoscale superconducting or semiconducting devices. This field is important because it can bring about topological quantum computing, a hypothetical way of storing and manipulating quantum information while protecting it against errors. In all cases they found alternative explanations of similar ...

Scientists find microbes enhance the benefits of trees by removing greenhouse gases

2026-01-08

Key points Researchers have revealed trillions of microbes live in the bark of every tree Tree microbes clean the air by removing greenhouse and toxic gases This suggests planting trees offers climate benefits beyond CO2 removal Australian researchers have discovered a hidden climate superpower of trees. Their bark harbours trillions of microbes that help scrub the air of greenhouse and toxic gases. It’s long been known that trees fight global warming by consuming ...

KAIST-Yonsei team identifies origin cells for malignant brain tumor common in young adults

2026-01-08

IDH-mutant glioma, caused by abnormalities in a specific gene (IDH), is the most common malignant brain tumor among young adults under the age of 50. It is a refractory brain cancer that is difficult to treat due to its high recurrence rate. Until now, treatment has focused primarily on removing the visible tumor mass. However, a Korean research team has discovered for the first time that normal brain cells acquire the initial IDH mutation and spread out through the cortex long before a visible tumor mass harboring additional cancer mutations forms, opening a new path for early diagnosis and treatment to suppress ...

Team discovers unexpected oscillation states in magnetic vortices

2026-01-08

Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have uncovered previously unobserved oscillation states – so-called Floquet states – in tiny magnetic vortices. Unlike earlier experiments, which required energy-intensive laser pulses to create such states, the team in Dresden discovered that a subtle excitation with magnetic waves is sufficient. This finding not only raises fundamental questions in basic physics but could also eventually serve as a universal adapter bridging electronics, spintronics, and quantum devices. The team reports its results ...

How the brain creates facial expressions

2026-01-08

When a baby smiles at you, it’s almost impossible not to smile back. This spontaneous reaction to a facial expression is part of the back-and-forth that allows us to understand each other’s emotions and mental states. Faces are so important to social communication that we’ve evolved specialized brain cells just to recognize them, as Rockefeller University’s Winrich Freiwald has discovered. It’s just one of a suite of groundbreaking findings the scientist has made in the past decade that have greatly advanced the neuroscience ...

Researchers observe gas outflow driven by a jet from an active galactic nucleus

2026-01-08

Active galactic nuclei, energetic and luminous regions powered by an accreting supermassive black hole at the center of some galaxies, can launch a jet that drives a gas outflow, shaping star formation in their host galaxy. Justin Kader and colleagues have observed this phenomenon in the nearby active galaxy VV 340a. Kader et al. observed the jet and galaxy across infrared, optical, radio, and sub-millimeter wavelengths, using the James Webb Space Telescope, Keck-II telescope, the Jansky Very Large Array and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The researchers combined these observations with modeling, to show that the low-power radio jet emitted ...

Pitt student finds familiar structure just 2 billion years after the Big Bang

2026-01-08

This news release is embargoed until 8-Jan-2026 at 12:00 PM EST Research led by Daniel Ivanov, a physics and astronomy graduate student in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at Pitt, uncovered a contender for one of the earliest observed spiral galaxies containing a stellar bar, a sometimes-striking visual feature that can play an important role in the evolution of a galaxy. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, also has a stellar bar. This finding helps constrain the timeframe in which ...

Evidence of cross-regional marine plastic pollution in green sea turtles

2026-01-08

Researchers examined the diet and plastic ingestion of green sea turtles inhabiting waters around the Ogasawara Islands, Japan, and detected plastics in 7 of the 10 individuals studied. By integrating genetic, isotopic, and plastic analyses, they estimated that the ingested plastics originated from areas beyond the turtles’ migratory range, indicating the influence of transboundary marine pollution. Plastics have been found in a wide range of marine organisms, from pelagic fishes and whales to even zooplankton. Among these organisms, sea turtles are frequently ...

An illegal fentanyl supply shock may have contributed to a dramatic decline in deaths

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: