Opioids
One short letter’s huge impact on the opioid epidemic
Every day, 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose. Drug overdoses overall — most of them from opioid painkillers and heroin — are the leading cause of accidental death in the US, killing more people than guns or car accidents. In fact, while Americans represent only about 5% of the global population, they consume about 80% of the world’s opioid painkillers. But how did we get to this point? Many public health experts point to […]
Drugs Kill More People Than Cars or Guns
Each year, more than 40,000 Americans die from drug overdoses. That’s on par with the annual death toll from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the US epidemic, in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and far more than are killed each year from car accidents or gun violence. More than half of those overdose deaths involved opioids, a class of drugs including heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, and fentanyl. So dire is the epidemic of opioid addiction that it […]
Village of Round Lake Park- Prescription Medication Disposal Program Launches Home Pickup Initiative
Currently members of the public can dispose of their unwanted and expired prescription medications conveniently and safely at the Round Lake Park Police Department, located at 215 E. Main Street, Round Lake Park IL. The Police Department’s Prescription Medication Drop Off Disposal Program is available Monday thru Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. excluding holidays when the station is closed to the public (dates and times subject to change). Beginning May 1, 2017, the […]
Study Analyzes Pediatric Opioid Exposures
Using data from the National Poison Data System, a new study published in the journal Pediatrics examined the more than 188,000 reported exposures to prescription opioids among children and adolescents younger than 20 years old between 2000 and 2015. The study found that healthcare facility (HCF) admission occurred in 8.7 percent and 21.5 percent of exposures among children aged 0-5 years and teenagers, respectively, while serious outcomes were more frequent among teenagers. Highlights from the report included: […]
From the Guardian: Pills that kill: why are thousands dying from fentanyl abuse?
Natasha Butler had never heard of fentanyl until a doctor told her that a single pill had pushed her eldest son to the brink of death – and he wasn’t coming back. “The doctor said fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. I know morphine is really, really powerful. I’m trying to understand. All that in one pill? How did Jerome get that pill?” she asked, her […]
Children Hospitalized for Opioid Poisoning More than Doubles in 16 Years, Study Finds
As the opioid epidemic has continued to expand across the U.S., multitudes of children have been hospitalized for opioid-related poisonings, according to a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Hospitalizations for prescription opioid-related poisonings increased a dramatic 165 percent, for children between the ages of 1 to 19, between 1997 and 2012, the researchers found. The “opioid crisis is effecting us all,” Julie Gaither, lead study author and Postdoctoral Fellow in Biostatistics at the Department […]
Best intentions gone awry: Origins of the opioid epidemic
Millions of Americans live with acute or chronic pain. Many of them rely on prescription drugs to improve their ability to function and maintain their quality of life. While all prescription drugs have some risk of misuse, some drugs, identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as controlled substances, are particularly dangerous. Specifically, prescription opioids have high abuse potential and can lead to life-threatening adverse events when taken in excess or in combination with other drugs.1 Opioids […]
Senator Durbin visits ‘extraordinary’ Lake County drug collection program
NOTE: Thanks to the News Sun for the original article. As communities across America continue to be plagued by an opioid-addiction crisis, Lake County boasts “the largest and most successful” pharmaceutical collection program in Illinois, officials told U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin Thursday as he visited the Gurnee-based agency that manages the effort. The Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) has collected and destroyed more than $1.2 million worth of controlled substances to date, the […]