Estimating changes in overdose death rates from increasing methamphetamine supply in Ohio: Evidence from crime lab data.

BACKGROUND: We investigate the relationship between the supply of methamphetamine and overdose death risk in Ohio. Ohio and the overall US have experienced a marked increase in overdose deaths from methamphetamine combined with fentanyl over the last decade. The increasing use of methamphetamine may be increasing the risk of overdose death. However, if people are using it to substitute away from more dangerous synthetic opioids, it may reduce the overall risk of overdose death. METHODS: Ohios Bureau of Criminal Investigations crime lab data include a detailed list of the content of drug samples from law enforcement seizures, which are used as a proxy for drug supply. We use linear regressions to estimate the relationship between the proportion of methamphetamine in lab samples and unintentional drug overdose death rates from January 2015 through September 2021. RESULTS: Relatively more methamphetamine in crime lab data in a county-month has either no statistically significant relationship with overdose death rates (in small and medium population counties) or a negative and statistically significant relationship with overdose death rates (in large population counties). Past overdose death rates do not predict future increases in methamphetamine in crime lab data. CONCLUSIONS: The results are consistent with a relatively higher supply of methamphetamine reducing the general risk of overdose death, possibly due to substitution away from more dangerous synthetic opioids. However, the supply of methamphetamine appears unrelated to the past illicit drug risk environment. The non-lethal and yet serious health effects of MA use were not explored and, thus, even if the presence of MA reduces the population-level overdose mortality rate, the rise of other adverse health effects may counteract any public health benefits of fewer deaths

Economic recession and recovery in the UK: what's gender got to do with it?

This study argues that a feminist economics perspective is essential in order to fully understand the gender consequences of the recent recession and the ongoing economic crisis in the United Kingdom. Unemployment and redundancy rates have been used to highlight the fact that male workers suffered the greatest impact in terms of job losses in the initial phases of the recession. However, this situation appears to have reversed with an associated program of spending cuts in public sector employment and welfare that will likely be borne by women. While accurate data are crucial in the analytical process, the exclusive use of statistics relating to paid work only gives a partial analysis. A more inclusive understanding of the range of impacts on both men and women is more useful in the formulation of gender-aware, as opposed to gender-blind, policy responses to recession and recovery

Exposição de corpos humanos: o uso de cadáveres como entretenimento e mercadoria

"Espécimes" inodoros, secos e quase eternos, produzidos a partir de cadáveres humanos por uma técnica chamada plastinação, estão sendo amplamente usados como modelos de anatomia em exposições e faculdades de medicina. Milhões de leigos já viram corpos dissecados em uma das espetaculares exposições de anatomia pelo mundo e um novo mercado on-line de "espécimes" humanos plastinados está crescendo. Mais do que transformações físico-químicas, a plastinação, associada a outros procedimentos, também realiza uma transformação simbólica que reduz o corpo-pessoa a corpo-objeto para neutralizar a poluição e o tabu associados aos cadáveres humanos. Contudo, as circunstâncias obscuras sobre como esses corpos foram doados, comprados ou mesmo roubados traz o status de pessoa de volta aos corpos, assim como chama a nossa atenção para novas questões éticas e morais.<br>Odorless, dry and almost everlasting "specimens", produced from human corpses by a technique called plastination, are being used as anatomy models in exhibitions and medical schools. Millions of lay people have already seen dissected corpses in one of the spectacular human anatomy exhibitions around the world and a new on-line market for plastinated human "specimens" is growing. More than chemical and physical transformations, plastination, associated with other procedures, also makes a symbolic transformation that reduces the person-body into object-body in order to neutralize the pollution and the taboo associated with human corpses. But unclear circumstances about these bodies and questions as to whether they have been donated, sold, or even stolen bring status as "people" back to the corpses and draws our attention to new ethical and moral questions