{"id":1099,"date":"2019-07-24T10:49:34","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T08:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2020-02-03T11:44:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-03T09:44:59","slug":"africas-opioid-epidemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/?p=1099","title":{"rendered":"Africa&#8217;s opioid epidemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DSCF5012-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Going out at night in Lome\" class=\"wp-image-1142\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DSCF5012-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DSCF5012-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DSCF5012-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/DSCF5012.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Mosaic Science  (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mosaicscience.com\/story\/opioid-epidemic-you-havent-heard-about-tramadol-Togo-Africa\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mosaic Science <\/a><\/strong><br> <br><strong>Weakly regulated painkillers are causing untold damage in West Africa, but stricter controls could have dire consequences for patients. Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt unpicks an opioid crisis even more complex than America\u2019s. <\/strong><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ayao* is a tall and well-built 15-year-old, and like many his age, he is very particular about his appearance. He wears a white T-shirt with a colourful design on the front, white trousers and Kappa slip-on sandals. He likes to put a lot of effort into grooming his stylishly cut hair. When I meet him at his family\u2019s simple one-storey brick house in Lom\u00e9, Togo\u2019s capital, he stands in his room looking into a tiny mirror, wincing as the comb gets stuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ayao works for a company that sells drinking water. He gets up at five to load transport tricycles with heavy bags of water sachets, and then delivers them to shops in the local area. Before starting this morning, he took two white tramadol pills, each with a stated dose of 225 mg.     <br> <br>With photos by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Nyani Quarmyne (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nqphotography.com\/index\" target=\"_blank\">Nyani Quarmyne<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.panos.co.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Panos Pictures (opens in a new tab)\">Panos Pictures<\/a>.<br><br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Click here to read the full story. (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mosaicscience.com\/story\/opioid-epidemic-you-havent-heard-about-tramadol-Togo-Africa\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Click here to read the full story.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The story was also published by <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"The&nbsp;Independent (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/world\/tramadol-opioid-africa-drugs-togo-a9010916.html\" target=\"_blank\">The&nbsp;Independent<\/a>,&nbsp; <a href=\"https:\/\/scroll.in\/article\/931244\/the-silent-epidemic-an-opioid-crisis-is-sweeping-africa-and-west-asia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Scroll India (opens in a new tab)\">Scroll India<\/a>, &nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Courrier&nbsp;International (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.courrierinternational.com\/article\/sante-en-afrique-de-louest-la-crise-silencieuse-et-ravageuse-des-opioides\" target=\"_blank\">Courrier&nbsp;International<\/a>,  <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Mail and Guardian (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/mg.co.za\/article\/2019-08-16-00-doing-the-tramadol-dance-what-this-latest-craze-says-about-pill-addiction\" target=\"_blank\">Mail and Guardian<\/a>, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Bhekisisa (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/bhekisisa.org\/article\/2019-08-13-tramadol-dance-what-latest-music-craze-says-about-africas-pill-addiction\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bhekisisa<\/a> and&nbsp;in&nbsp;parts&nbsp;by&nbsp;<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"El&nbsp;Pa\u00eds (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/elpais.com\/elpais\/2019\/08\/05\/planeta_futuro\/1565001205_299799.html\" target=\"_blank\">El&nbsp;Pa\u00eds<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mosaic Science Weakly regulated painkillers are causing untold damage in West Africa, but stricter controls could have dire consequences for patients. Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt unpicks an opioid crisis even more complex than America\u2019s. Ayao* is a tall and well-built 15-year-old, and like many his age, he is very particular about his appearance. He wears a white [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[173,175,177,246,248,249,250,251,252,253,254,255,256,68,125],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1145,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/1145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurasalm.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}