Category: Opioids
Increase in local overdose deaths linked to fentanyl-laced drugs
Fentanyl has been found in illicit M30, V48 and A215 pills and various powder products.
In Cherokee Country, Opioid Crisis Seen as Existential Threat
Native Americans, make up less than 2% of the population, have higher rates of overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids than any other racial/ethnic group
State makes it easier to access opioid overdose drug
Anyone who wants to get opioid overdose drug naloxone can now obtain the drug at any pharmacy in the state without a prescription.
Judge Cites Opioid ‘Menace,’ Awards Oklahoma $572M In Landmark Case
It’s the first ruling to hold a pharmaceutical company responsible for one of the worst drug epidemics in American history.
Where Doctors Can Recommend Marijuana to Replace Opioids
Colorado, Illinois and New York now allow health professionals to recommend marijuana instead of addictive, potentially deadly opioid pain pills.
Opioid study shows which counties are at high-risk
Study identified 412 counties are at least twice as likely to be at high risk for opioid overdose deaths and to lack providers who can deliver medications to treat opioid use disorder.
Opioid epidemic may have cost states $130 billion
In addition to effects on health care use, opioid misuse can also lead to significant declines in employment, which in turn rob states of expected tax revenue.
Overdose Prevention Efforts Reach Bars and Clubs
To stanch the death toll from fentanyl contamination in the illicit drug supply, health officials in New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Seattle reaching out to customers in bars and clubs.
Six-step plan reduced opioid use in rural clinic patients
A six-step plan that took a system approach cut use of high-dose opioids by more than 14 percent.
Meth In The Morning, Heroin At Night
Life inside the seesaw struggle of dual addiction.
Surgeons’ Opioid-Prescribing Habits Are Hard To Kick
As opioid addiction and overdoses escalated into an epidemic, many surgeons continued to hand out far more pills than needed for postoperative pain relief
Oklahoma’s ‘Precedent-Setting’ Suit Puts Opioid Drugmakers On Trial
All eyes will be on Oklahoma this week when the first case in a flood of litigation against opioid drug manufacturers begins Tuesday.
Rapid Opioid Cutoff Is Risky Too, Feds Warn
Federal agencies are urging doctors to evaluate the risks to patients on opioid pain medicines before abruptly tapering them off the highly addictive drugs.
As Drug Crises Surge, Babies Enter Foster Care at Higher Rate
The trend has a big impact on states, whose budgets often already are overstretched responding to the drug crisis and other needs.
Fentanyl-Linked Deaths: The U.S. Opioid Epidemic’s Third Wave
First came prescription pain medications, then heroin, and now fentanyl.