AXIOS (Russell Contreras) - Overdoses are dropping, but poly-drug mixes are rewriting the U.S. drug crisis
Overdose deaths are falling, but America's illicit drug supply is re-engineering itself into lethal cocktails: fentanyl plus stimulants, sedatives, and novel synthetics that hide in party powders and pressed pills. Why it matters: Those polydrug blends — nicknamed "pink cocaine," "rhino tranq," "benzo-dope" and others — are harder to detect, harder to reverse, harder to message against and can even result in the loss of limbs. - That makes recent overdose declines fragile and public-health victories reversible if policy, testing and treatment don't catch up. - "When we crack down on one drug, the market innovates," Sheila Vakharia, managing director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement at the Drug Policy…