| | | | |  | | By Carmen Paun, Erin Schumaker and Ben Leonard | | | | | 
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is trying to unite the world against synthetic opioids. | Francis Chung/POLITICO | The State Department is trying to gather most of the world under one virtual tent to fight opioids such as illicit fentanyl — the top killer of young adults in the United States. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a virtual meeting Friday morning to officially launch a Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats with more than 80 countries and several international organizations. The coalition brings together officials from countries such as Canada, Mexico and those in the European Union and Middle East to exchange knowledge about how to respond to the rise of synthetic opioids driving addiction, said a State Department official whom POLITICO granted anonymity because the person wasn’t authorized to speak on the record. “When we were talking to a mayor from outside of Vancouver, British Columbia, he said they’ve moved on from fentanyl to carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer for elephants and rhinoceros that is 100 times more potent than fentanyl,” the official said, adding that the U.S. could learn from Canada’s response to it, for example. Other participating countries struggle with drugs such as methamphetamine in Europe and the synthetic amphetamine-type stimulant Captagon in the Middle East, and there’s value in sharing experiences, the official said. According to the State Department official, participating countries will work on three priorities until March 2024 when the U.S. and partner countries would decide whether to continue the coalition or make changes:
- Preventing the manufacturing and trafficking of illicit synthetic drugs
- Detecting emerging drug threats and use patterns through data-sharing and forecasting to try “to identify the new fentanyl or the next meth before it gets here”
- Promoting appropriate health responses, such as certifying health care workers, establishing rules for law enforcement when they encounter people who overdosed, developing community-based solutions and reducing stigma.
The elephant not in the room? Fentanyl, which was involved in more than 70,000 overdose or poisoning deaths in the U.S. last year is produced by drug cartels in Mexico with raw materials procured mostly from China. The latter has been invited to the summit but has neither accepted nor declined the invitation, the State Department official said. | | | | LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today. | | | | |
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Puzhehei, China | Evan Peng | This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Stanford University scientists have pinpointed the part of the brain responsible for out-of-body experiences. Called the anterior precuneus, the sausage-shaped tissue is between the brain's two hemispheres, NPR reports. In addition to helping explain the effects of mind-altering drugs like ketamine, the finding may one day help researchers develop new types of anesthesia. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. Today on our Pulse Check podcast, your host Carmen talks with Robert King who reports on congressional Republicans’ criticism of CMS for ignoring the advice of an appointed board of doctors on how to transition Medicare payment policies using new payment models.
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A woman demonstrates what a patient would experience in a psychedelic therapy room in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in August 2020. COLE BURSTON | AFP via Getty Images | Australia has plunged ahead in the race to legitimize psychedelic medicine. The country is the first to allow doctors to prescribe psychedelic substances to treat two mental health conditions. Authorized psychiatrists can prescribe MDMA as treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, for treatment-resistant depression as of July 1. Still, Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, warned that it might take time to train and authorize psychiatrists and then supply them with the drugs before they can treat patients. “We do not expect widespread prescribing of MDMA or psilocybin as the treatments are limited to those with specific mental health conditions who have been resistant to approved treatments,”the TGA said in a statement. Meanwhile, in the U.S., psychedelics have been undergoing somewhat of a renaissance:
- Oregon voters approved adult use of psilocybin in 2020, and the state’s first licensed psilocybin treatment center opened its doors this spring.
- In 2022, Colorado became the second state after Oregon where voters legalized psilocybin at the ballot box.
On the federal level, psychedelic medicine is moving more slowly. Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration released draft guidance for researchers designing clinical trials for psychedelic drugs. The guidance focused on basics like trial conduct, data collection, study-participant safety and new drug-application requirements, with a special emphasis on the potential risks of psychedelic treatments. What’s next: The public has until Aug. 25 to submit comments to the FDA on its draft guidance.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO POWER SWITCH: The energy landscape is profoundly transforming. Power Switch is a daily newsletter that unlocks the most important stories driving the energy sector and the political forces shaping critical decisions about your energy future, from production to storage, distribution to consumption. Don’t miss out on Power Switch, your guide to the politics of energy transformation in America and around the world. SUBSCRIBE TODAY. | | | | | | | | |  Moving to a health care system that would lean heavily on artificial intelligence, preventive care and data-sharing could help people live longer, healthier lives, according to Deloitte. Christopher Furlong | Getty Images | Tech tools, properly implemented, can reverse Americans’ declining life expectancies — and dramatically lengthen them. So says consulting firm Deloitte in a new report projecting that Americans can expect to live to nearly 90 if artificial intelligence, preventive care and data-sharing are employed. Even so: U.S. life expectancy fell in 2021 by nearly a year, to 76.1 years, after plummeting nearly two years in 2020. While Covid-19 is partially to blame, an increase in heart attacks, liver disease and drug overdoses is also responsible for reducing lifespans. So why the optimism? Deloitte believes the trajectory will change by moving to a more modern health care system that would lean on artificial intelligence, preventive care and data-sharing. Employers are key to driving that change, said Andy Davis, leader of Deloitte’s health care actuarial practice. “With the population they serve, the generational impact and scale they have, they have the biggest ability to make a difference," Davis said. Deloitte made its calculations by identifying conditions driving 70 percent of mortality and disability, reviewing literature on how to better treat the conditions and examining what could happen with better treatment. Better health could come through expanded employee benefits that boost health literacy, prevention and wellness programs. “This is 100 percent about being able to modify your own behavior, and that’s an individual choice,” Davis said. “What we need is infrastructure to help incentivize appropriate choices.”
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