How a Shift in Health-Care Delivery and Big Pharma's Hunger for Profits Have Driven the Opioid Epidemic I was walking past, and happened to see him behind the partially drawn curtain. There he was, lying on the gurney, head back, mouth gaping. White, 25, covered in tattoos, not breathing, his lips a fine pale blue. We ran into the room. The nurse pushed Narcan, a drug that reverses opiates. And 30 seconds later he woke up as if a switch had been flipped. Narcan is like magic; it literally raises people from the dead. [continues 1658 words]
How to Win the War on Drugs In 1994, John Ehrlichman, the Watergate co-conspirator, unlocked for me one of the great mysteries of modern American history: How did the United States entangle itself in a policy of drug prohibition that has yielded so much misery and so few good results? Americans have been criminalizing psychoactive substances since San Francisco's anti-opium law of 1875, but it was Ehrlichman's boss, Richard Nixon, who declared the first "war on drugs" and set the country on the wildly punitive and counterproductive path it still pursues. [continues 6943 words]
WASILLA -- Soaring heroin overdose death rates in Alaska still don't outpace the rate of fatal overdoses from prescription opioid pain relievers, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services. Deaths from heroin increased from seven in 2009 to 36 deaths last year, according to a bulletin released Thursday by the state Division of Public Health. The number of fatal overdoses from prescription opioids was far higher: 83 deaths last year, down from 104 deaths in 2009. Fatal overdoses linked to prescription pain medications dropped considerably in 2010 after pharmaceutical companies changed formulations to deter abuse but then began rising again, according to Dr. Jay Butler, the state's chief medical officer and director of the public health division. [continues 308 words]
The nation's heroin epidemic found its way from the shadows of America to Capitol Hill this week as lawmakers and experts struggled with a raging disease that is leaving an increasing number of bodies behind. Heroin deaths have almost tripled since 2010, Louis J. Milione, a Drug Enforcement Administration deputy assistant administrator, told a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing Tuesday. "Today's heroin at the retail level costs less and is more potent than the heroin that DEA encountered two decades ago," he said. [continues 663 words]
In San Francisco, no game of NIMBY bingo is complete without a complaint of "used needles." In Chronicle columns, letters to the editor, and harrowing tales of urban living, evidence of heroin use ends up everywhere: in children's sandboxes, at Muni stops, and anywhere else people walk. For once, this problem could possibly be understated. As this column has pointed out before, it's a small wonder we aren't all swimming in discarded syringes: San Francisco is experiencing a needle boom. [continues 927 words]
ITHACA, N.Y. - Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of this city, thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, though it was put forth by a committee he had appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin - something that does not exist anywhere in the United States. "Heroin is bad, and injecting heroin is bad, so how could supervised heroin injection be a good thing?" Mr. Myrick, a Democrat, said. But he also knew he had to do something drastic to confront the scourge of heroin in his city in central New York. So he was willing to take a chance and embrace the radical notion, knowing well that it would provoke a backlash. [continues 1204 words]
Epidemic Stretches From Coast to Coast BALTIMORE - A crowd quickly gathers here on one of West Baltimore's many drug-infested street corners. But it isn't heroin they're seeking. It's a heroin antidote known as naloxone, or Narcan. Two city health department workers are holding up slim salmon-colored boxes and explaining that the medication inside can be used to stop someone from dying of a heroin overdose. Most onlookers nod solemnly in recognition. They've heard about the drug. They want to know more. [continues 1011 words]
Tim Ryan, a Former Heroin Addict Who Lost His Son to the Drug, Aims to Bring Users into Rehab and Recovery, but Some Question His Methods Two years after emerging from prison on drug-related charges, Tim Ryan has become a beacon for families scarred by Chicago's heroin crisis. The brash and salty former corporate headhunter has launched a public crusade to take addicts "from dope to hope" by running recovery groups, performing interventions and handing out advice via Facebook. He claims he ushers hundreds of people a month into rehab, and that he does it with remarkable speed. [continues 2910 words]
BALTIMORE - A crowd quickly gathers here on one of West Baltimore's many drug-infested street corners. But it isn't heroin they're seeking. It's a heroin antidote known as naloxone, or Narcan. Two city health department workers are holding up slim salmon-colored boxes and explaining that the medication inside can be used to stop someone from dying of a heroin overdose. Most onlookers nod solemnly in recognition. They've heard about the drug. They want to know more. [continues 1016 words]
Officials Ask Public to Identify Dealers, Users As Wave Hits Northern Minn. A wave of heroin overdose deaths and hospitalizations across northern Minnesota prompted an urgent plea from authorities Wednesday for the public's help in identifying dealers and users in an effort to prevent further tragedies. Seven people have died and more than a dozen have been hospitalized in the past few weeks after ingesting heroin that in many cases was made even deadlier by the presence of added narcotics such as morphine and fentanyl, authorities said at Wednesday's news conference in Bemidji, Minn. [continues 735 words]
Norwich - If they're still breathing, there's hope. When somebody overdoses on heroin and is treated in the emergency room at The William W. Backus Hospital, they speak to an outreach worker before they leave. It's one of the steps members the Norwich Heroin Task Force, comprising social services agencies, health care providers, police and others are taking as they try to get a handle on the growing number of heroin- and opiate- addicted residents in the region. More than 120 people attended a forum on the growing public health crisis Thursday, with presentations from social workers, doctors, addiction specialists and parents of addicted children. [continues 869 words]
'Getting High' May Be Fun, but It's Destructive, and Inevitably Everyone Pays It's called "getting high" for a reason. Euphoria feels good. But abusing "harmless" drugs like marijuana has consequences that are anything but harmless. Drug overdose has surpassed traffic accidents as a cause of death in the United States; the numbers of heroin deaths in particular are off the charts. Congress struggles to craft a national legislative remedy to deal with the scourge of drug abuse, just as several states are undermining the congressional effort by dealing with pot as a good-time treat for fun-seekers. Pot is a gateway drug, and legalizing it sends a mixed message that inevitably produces more misery. [continues 473 words]
Uxbridge Community Leaders Collaborate on Solutions As Mass. Battles Addiction UXBRIDGE - If there was an overriding message from Uxbridge's community forum on opioid addiction it would be: "We are all in this together." "None of us has the total answer. A total collaboration across the board - that's where the answers will be," said Craig Maxim, program director of Family Continuity, a mental health provider and head of the Northbridge Coalition. Maxim was one of several panelists at the forum hosted by the Uxbridge Coalition for a Community of Caring. The panel included representatives from the medical community, state legislators, the district attorney's office, the police and fire departments, schools and support groups. [continues 1370 words]
MD. Should Consider (but Not Rush Into) Legalizing 'Safe Injection Sites' Lawmakers are considering a bill in the General Assembly that only a few years ago would have been thought a dangerously radical proposal: legalizing the creation of so-called "safe injection facilities" where people addicted to heroin and other opioids can consume the drugs under the supervision of medically trained staff without subjecting themselves to criminal penalties. While the idea of sanctioning illegal drug use still strikes many people as extreme, such programs in fact have proven effective elsewhere, and they're also a logical consequence of a national trend toward treating addiction as an illness rather than as a crime. [continues 639 words]
For millions of families, including those in our own Florida communities, a drug-fueled pattern of devastation and heartbreak has become a painful part of life. Too many of our loved ones are losing their struggle with heroin and other addictive substances. The facts are sobering. Thousands of Americans die each year from heroin, the most addictive drug on the planet. In Florida, heroin overdose deaths have increased 900 percent in recent years, rising from 48 in 2010 to 447 in 2014. [continues 425 words]
As a new task force convenes to address the region's heroin epidemic, King County residents should prepare to support numerous options for treating a growing number of addicts. THE horrendous effects of heroin addiction can be felt everywhere, from homeless encampments under bridges and on the streets of glittering downtown Seattle to rural communities throughout the state. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. Nor is simply blaming people who are dealing with addiction. The only way to address this public health crisis - and to end the death spiral for some - is to acknowledge the scope of the problem and to be open to exploring new approaches to treatment. [continues 374 words]
There was a time when Penny LeGate couldn't bear to hear her own daughter's name. And yet, there she was last week, glued to her computer screen, watching as Sen. Patty Murray stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and cited LeGate's girl, Marah Williams - and her death at 19 from a heroin overdose in 2012 - in urging the passage of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. The legislation, if passed, would tackle prescription-drug abuse and heroin addiction by cutting down the "inappropriate" use of pain medication that leads to addiction. It also would make it easier for people to safely dispose of medication and would give police access to naloxone, which can counteract the effects of an overdose. [continues 379 words]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In Philadelphia last spring, a man riding a city bus at rush hour injected heroin into his hand, in full view of other passengers, including one who captured the scene on video. In Cincinnati, a woman died in January after she and her husband overdosed in their baby's room at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The husband was found unconscious with a gun in his pocket, a syringe in his arm and needles strewn around the sink. [continues 657 words]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In Philadelphia last spring, a man riding a city bus at rush hour injected heroin into his hand, in full view of other passengers, including one who captured the scene on video. In Cincinnati, a woman died in January after she and her husband overdosed in their baby's room at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The husband was found unconscious with a gun in his pocket, a syringe in his arm and needles strewn around the sink. [continues 1207 words]
Awareness Forum Addresses Growing Opioid Epidemic GOSHEN - "Northwest Connecticut has been reeling from an unfortunate epidemic," began Brian Ohler, director of the United Coalition of Northwest Connecticut to an audience of 25 at the Goshen Center School, "one that is plagued by rampant drug-related overdose deaths." Ohler moderated an Opioid Awareness Forum at 50 North St. Saturday. Various area drug counselors and health workers discussed the subject of the burgeoning heroin epidemic and treatment options and possible solutions in Litchfield County. Audience members included health care workers, concerned local politicians, and bereaved mothers. [continues 1321 words]
