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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Protect Your Kids: 3 Steps to Safeguard Your Home Two-thirds of teens who report abuse of prescription medicine are getting them from friends, family and acquaintances. Make sure the teens in your life don’t have access to your medicine. Find out how to monitor, secure and properly dispose of unused and expired prescription and over-the-counter cough medicine in your home. Step 1: Monitor Parents are in an influential position to immediately help reduce teen access […]
Forty-four states will receive a total of $53 million in grants from the Obama Administration to fight the opioid epidemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. Administration officials are calling on legislators to approve $1.1 billion requested by President Obama to increase addiction treatment. The new state funds will include money to provide first responders with the opioid overdose antidote naloxone. Michael Botticelli, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said more help is […]
Prescription drug misuse could be slipping through the cracks at Illinois workplaces, this article warns. No study has assessed whether the state has a prescription drug problem in the workplace, and state law does not require employers to conduct drug tests. The Illinois Work Injury Resource Center tests thousands of employers throughout central Illinois for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, PCP, and opiates. Employers can upgrade the test to include six additional prescription medications. It can still […]
To address the growing number of Lake County residents struggling with opioid addictions, the Lake County Health Department/Community Health Center is doubling the capacity of its Medication-Assisted Treatment program. It is expanding treatment to 200 people struggling with opioid addictions through a grant of $325,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration. “The expansion of our MAT program is an essential next step in the regional effort to address the opioid epidemic, which has had […]
SAVANNAH, Ga. — A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left. That story still circulates within the business community of this historic port city. But the problem has gotten worse. All over the country, employers say they see […]
On the outskirts of Kingsport, Tennessee, Kim, a therapist, faces a small group of people sitting in folding chairs. She’s helping them rid their life of illegal drugs. The attendees are all white and working class, self-described “dirt poor”, and none with college degrees. They have come to spend hours talking of past and present pains, offer each other support, and pee in a cup. If they pass the test, they will get their weekly […]
Doctor David Kessler, who ran the FDA from 1990 to 1997, doesn’t hold back when talking about the explosion in opioid use in the last two decades. “This has been one of the great mistakes of modern medicine,” said Kessler, who went on to say opioid addiction in the U.S. amounts to an epidemic. “FDA has responsibility, the pharmaceutical companies have responsibility, physicians have responsibility. We didn’t see these drugs for what they truly are,” […]
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