S.J.B.
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Experts question Health Canada claims over W-18 drug, call for more research
Geordon Omand
CBC
June 11th, 2016
Read the full story here.
It's refreshing to see a mainstream article that takes a step back from all the drug horror stories full of unsubstantiated claims. I'm especially happy to see someone making it clear that potency is not necessarily proportional to toxicity, as this is a fallacy that we see in the media all the time.
Geordon Omand
CBC
June 11th, 2016
Experts are questioning widely circulated Health Canada claims that the drug W-18 is 100 times more powerful than fentanyl, or that the new arrival to the illicit-drug scene is even technically an opioid.
Dr. David Juurlink, head of pharmacology and toxicology at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said that while W-18 could very well be dangerous more research is needed before conclusions can be drawn about its chemical behaviour and potency.
"The main thing we know is that we don't know very much," Juurlink said in an interview. "It's clearly a chemical and it does something but what exactly it does is not clear."
What is known is that W-18 is a synthetic compound created and patented at a University of Alberta laboratory as a potential pain reliever in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was one of 32 chemicals produced in the so-called W-series, none of which were ever produced commercially.
As of June 1, Canada made it illegal to produce, possess, import, export or traffic W-18 after the substance was identified during several illicit-drug seizures.
Read the full story here.
It's refreshing to see a mainstream article that takes a step back from all the drug horror stories full of unsubstantiated claims. I'm especially happy to see someone making it clear that potency is not necessarily proportional to toxicity, as this is a fallacy that we see in the media all the time.