[photo] (Debee Tlumacki for The Boston Globe) Paul Jehle, pastor of the New Testament Church of Cedarville, shook hands with recovering addict Justin Todd at a Project Outreach drop-in center hosted by the church in Plymouth. One in a series of occasional articles about opiate abuse and its consequences. It took multiple applications of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, Paul Hachey of Plymouth recalled, to revive him in late September. The 38-year-old was "dead" from an OxyContin overdose for three minutes before he slipped back to life, he said. [continues 1192 words]
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday that Congressional Republicans are on a "rescue" mission to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and that he and President-elect Donald Trump are in perfect sync with the process of replacing Obamacare. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES) Funding for mental illness and opioid addiction treatment in Pennsylvania will take a big hit if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, according to research published this week by Harvard Medical School. More than 181,000 Pennsylvania residents with mental and substance abuse disorders will lose access to services made available under the ACA, concluded Harvard health economics professor Richard G. Frank and New York University public service dean Sherry Glied. [continues 845 words]
The reformulation of the powerful painkiller OxyContin in 2010 is the chief driver of the explosion in heroin overdose deaths in subsequent years, according to a new working paper from researchers at the RAND Corp. and the Wharton School. OxyContin, released by Purdue Pharma in 1996, is a powerful extended-release opioid designed to provide 12-hour relief to patients suffering from severe pain. The original formulation was particularly prone to abuse, as drug users found that they could crush the pills and chew, snort or inject them in order to deliver 12 hours of powerful painkiller dosage all at once. [continues 869 words]
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center, arrives in the Assembly chamber of the Statehouse to deliver his State Of The State address Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2017, in Trenton, N.J. (AP Photo/Mel Evans) TRENTON - Gov. Christie vowed Tuesday to devote his final year in office to battling drug addiction, skirting other challenges confronting New Jersey as he delivered an unusual and impassioned State of the State address focused almost exclusively on the issue. Telling personal stories of people affected by addiction - a state employee whose son died from a heroin overdose two days after she celebrated his sobriety at a Statehouse vigil; the son of a state Supreme Court justice, now in recovery and opening a treatment center - Christie said he hoped to make New Jersey an example for the nation on drug recovery. [continues 916 words]
The man responsible for more than two dozen heroin overdoses -- which all occurred in one day in a state deemed the ground zero for the opioid epidemic -- faces up to 20 years in federal prison. Bruce Lamar Griggs, 22, pleaded guilty on Monday to distribution of heroin, about six months after 26 people overdosed in Huntington, a city in the southwest corner of West Virginia. The 911 calls came within hours of one another, the majority of which concerned overdoses in and around one apartment complex. [continues 388 words]
One is a former nurse. Another used to be in law enforcement. There were a recruiter and a graphic designer. Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir Grewal and Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino at the press conference on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016. They were among 40 people arrested this week in an investigation led by the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office to combat the area's "staggering" heroin epidemic. This time, after arresting the alleged users for drug possession, detectives offered them help -- the chance to enter a five-day detox program run by Bergen County Regional Medical Center. Twelve people accepted. [continues 1881 words]
[photo] (ED HILLE / Staff Photographer) William McMonigle and Amy Zaccario of Havertown, who both lost their fathers to heroin overdoses in Philadelphia, are now planning the funeral of their best friend, Sean Jimenez, who died of a heroin overdose in Kensington on Monday. At home in Jenkintown, Sean Jimenez had a decent job, a woman who loved him, and two young sons who bore a striking resemblance to Dennis the Menace, just as he did when he was little. Gallery: But Monday night on a Kensington sidewalk, Jimenez had nothing but the clothes on his back, a few dollars in his pocket, a cellphone, and a drug addiction that apparently took his life. He was pronounced dead there at 11:10 p.m. [continues 785 words]
'It's A Mess.' Nicholasville experienced a surge in heroin overdoses Monday and Tuesday, said Aaron Stamper, chief of Jessamine County Emergency Services. "It's a mess right now," Stamper said shortly before 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. "We've had five overdoses in the last eight hours, and I think in the last 24 hours, we've had nine overdoses." There was one suspected drug overdose death Saturday, but the overdoses that happened Monday and Tuesday did not result in death, said Jessamine County Coroner Mike Hughes. [continues 180 words]
The deadly toll of heroin, deemed a public health crisis by many officials in Wisconsin, isn't slowing down. Heroin-related deaths in Milwaukee County skyrocketed by 72% last year compared with 2013, according to data released Wednesday by the Milwaukee County medical examiner's office. In 2014, 119 people died from heroin-related overdoses, and for the second year in a row in Milwaukee County, heroin-related deaths outpaced motor vehicle deaths, of which 74 occurred. Heroin-related deaths also account for nearly half the 249 drug-related deaths investigated by the medical examiner's office. Several drug-related deaths from 2014 remain under investigation, but heroin has been ruled out as a contributing factor. [continues 813 words]
In Milwaukee County, a record 299 people died from drug overdoses in 2016, outstripping the 255 total deaths in 2015, which was itself a record. That preliminary total does not include an estimated 45 suspected drug-related deaths that are awaiting toxicology results. [photo] Alyssa Anderson, 24, died in March 2015 of a heroin overdose. She was one of 281 people who died from heroin statewide in 2015 and the death toll continued to climb in 2016.(Photo: Family photo) Annette Renk remembers her daughter playing the violin and bass guitar, exploring nature and caring for her pets -- a cat, a snake and a tarantula. [continues 1237 words]
[photo] Bruce Brandler is chief federal law enforcement officer for a sprawling judicial district that covers half of Pennsylvania. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press) The phone at Bruce Brandler's home rang at 3:37 a.m. It was the local hospital. His 16-year-old son was there, and he was in really bad shape. A suspected heroin overdose, the nurse said. Brandler didn't believe it. Erik had his problems, but heroin? It seemed impossible. Nearly 10 years later, the nation is gripped by a spiraling crisis of opioid and heroin abuse -- and Brandler, a veteran federal prosecutor recently promoted to interim U.S. attorney, suddenly finds himself in a position to do something about the scourge that claimed his youngest son's life. [continues 778 words]
Growing up, Evan Blessett was as an avid soccer player and honor roll student. He loved skateboarding and played the drums later in his teen years. But one role that his dad, Doug, never thought his son would play was one of a recovering drug addict. "The thing that gets me is he got past us," Doug Blessett said about his 29-year-old son, who is a counselor at The Healing Place, an addiction recovery center in Louisville. "When my son went through this, I took it personally. You think you would see it, and I didn't." [continues 1428 words]
Madison - The state would expand the fight against heroin abuse and approve labor contracts with the few remaining state employee unions, under legislation unanimously passed by lawmakers Tuesday. Without dissent, the Assembly approved the measures on drug abuse and sent them to the Senate, which is expected to take them up in the coming weeks. Gov. Scott Walker and Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen support the measures. If the heroin bills become law, users of the deadly drug would be immune from liability if they called 911 to report overdoses, and more first responders could carry drugs to counteract overdoses. People also would have to show identification when they pick up many prescriptions, and communities would be able to set up drug-disposal programs more easily. [continues 810 words]
A drug that can stop a heroin overdose, and potentially save a life, is available in Wisconsin. One agency provides the doses at no cost. But it's against the law for an individual with a prescription for naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, to use the drug on a friend or someone else overdosing on other opiates such as morphine, oxycodone and methadone. A recent report from the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse has recommended a 911 Good Samaritan Law to state lawmakers that, among other provisions, would offer limited immunity in such cases. [continues 957 words]
A Richland woman died Wednesday in her apartment from a suspected heroin overdose, leaving her 3-year-old son alone in the residence until police found him. The woman was identified as Lauren Wilson, 34, of Thomas Village in the 5600 block of Community Center Drive. Police were called Wednesday afternoon by Ms. Wilson's mother because she was unable to contact her daughter by phone, Northern Regional Police Department Chief T. Robert Amann said today. Police found Ms. Wilson's body and a syringe. [continues 322 words]
Drug-overdose deaths surged to new levels in Maryland during the first nine months of 2016, far surpassing the total for all of the previous year as fatalities related to heroin and fentanyl use increased sharply. The state health department reported Thursday that the number of overdose deaths for January through September climbed to 1,468, a 62aE percent jump compared with the same period in 2015, and the sixth straight year that the figure has risen. The total for the first three quarters of 2016 exceeded the overall sum for the previous year by nearly 17aE percent. [continues 701 words]
COLUMBUS - Gov. John Kasich today signed another bill targeting Ohio's opiate and heroin epidemic. In 2015, Ohio led the nation in opioid overdose deaths. Senate Bill 319, sponsored by Sen. John Eklund (R., Chardon), expands access to the anti-overdose drug naloxone to entities such as homeless shelters, halfway houses, schools, and treatment centers that deal with populations at high risk of heroin overdose. It also offers civil immunity to law enforcement officers who carry and use naloxone. "We have spent a billion dollars on this issue. A billion dollars...," Mr. Kasich said. "Thank God we expanded Medicaid, because that Medicaid money is helping to rehab people...There are going to be more tools to come, but we're not going to defeat this just from the top down." [continues 228 words]
Lawmakers and those who testified on behalf of a bill that would expand access to a drug that reverses the effects of opiate overdoses discuss the legislation outside the House Health and Welfare Commitee meeting Wednesday, April 2, 2014. Pictured from left are Rep. Bernard LeBas, D-Ville Platte; State Fire Marshal Butch Browning; Rep. Helena Moreno, D-New Orleans; East Baton Rouge Parish Coroner Dr. Williams "Beau" Clark; and Louisiana Fireman's Association President Kenny Hunt. Gov. Bobby Jindal signed the bill into law on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. (Emily Lane, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) [continues 241 words]
The 44-year-old mother who answered the door in Lincoln-Lemington on the evening of Dec. 15 had the "pin point" eyes of "someone who has recently used opioids," a Pittsburgh police officer wrote. The officer was responding to a 911 call suggesting child endangerment. "I do suffer from using heroin and I'm trying to stop, but I keep using," the woman admitted, according to the officer's affidavit. She led police to the makeup bag under the throw pillow, where they found six stamp bags of heroin and three hypodermic needles, the officer wrote. [continues 3159 words]
Several dozen people who lost loved ones to heroin and opiate addiction gathered at Canalside Saturday to mourn and to raise awareness. (Maki Becker/Buffalo News) Kelly Taylor couldn't talk publicly about the fact that two of her sons died of heroin overdoses. It wasn't just grief. She knew people judged her. Self-doubt silenced her. But Taylor and others who have endured the agony of losing loved ones to the opiate epidemic say there is no longer room for shame and silence. [continues 714 words]
