WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- Sen. Ron Wyden issued the following press release:
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today led his colleagues in pressing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on how it is prioritizing a federal response to the growing threat of synthetic opioids, specifically a class of drugs known as "nitazenes."
Although nitazenes were originally developed as pain relievers in the 1950s, these synthetic opioids are now illicitly manufactured abroad and then trafficked across the United States. Illicitly-manufactured nitazenes have been shown to be more than ten times more powerful than fentanyl. Nitazenes frequently go undetected in toxicology screenings, so the full extent of its role in overdoses and addiction remain...