In the ongoing battle to stem the heroin and opiate epidemic in Maryland, the newest focus is a state law that mandates teaching students in elementary schools through college about the dangers of the drugs. Public schools are tweaking drug-education lessons and colleges are preparing sessions for incoming students to comply with the Start Talking Maryland Act, which becomes law July 1. The act, passed by state lawmakers and signed by Gov. Larry Hogan earlier this year, requires public schools to offer drug-education that includes the dangers of heroin and opiates starting in elementary school. [continues 1207 words]
VANCOUVER - Addiction experts from five European countries say their experience with prescription heroin programs have provided overwhelming evidence to suggest Canada should expand its one clinic in the midst of a deadly opioid crisis. Researchers from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada held a symposium in Vancouver on Friday to share lessons they've learned from multiple clinical trials and years of treatment. Wim van den Brink of the Netherlands told a news conference that some European programs started as a way to deal with the public nuisance of drug use but the medical health benefits improved people's quality of life and saved money in the criminal justice system. [continues 310 words]
BLANCHESTER, Ohio - A life of farming taught Roger Winemiller plenty about harsh twists of fate: hailstorms and drought, ragweed infestations and jittery crop prices. He hadn't bargained on heroin. Then, in March 2016, Mr. Winemiller's daughter, Heather Himes, 31, died of an opioid overdose at the family farmhouse, inside a first-floor bathroom overlooking fields of corn and soybeans. Mr. Winemiller was the one who unlocked the bathroom door and found her slumped over, a syringe by her side. [continues 1994 words]
Ottawa's health unit supports prescribing heroin to treat severe addicts and at least one treatment clinic is considering it as the city fights the rising rates of overdoses from it and similar opioid drugs. "We really see it as more an extension of our opiate substitution therapy program than part of our supervised injection efforts," said Rob Boyd, the head of the drug-treatment programs at the Sandy Hill Community Health Centre on Rideau Street. Boyd has been leading the charge to add an injection site to the centre's existing methadone clinic. [continues 866 words]
A public suggestion by the provincial coroner to provide heroin to addicts is turning some heads. The comments by chief coroner Lisa Lapointe last week came after it was learned 116 people in this province died of overdoses from illicit drugs in January. It's widely believed the deaths are a result of fentanyl, a drug 100 times stronger than morphine. Lapointe said the people who have died haven't been successful in a variety of treatment programs. [continues 591 words]
Ends always justify the means for those striving to do good, no matter the cost to life, liberty and truth. The truth about hard drugs, such as heroin, is blunt - it destroys lives and it kills. With each injection, intravenous drug users on the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver are slowly, sometimes quickly, killing themselves. I believe these people are well aware of this fact. How could they not? The risk of death is an ever-present danger that is impossible for any hard-drug user to ignore, let alone plead ignorance. [continues 357 words]
Re: "Is free heroin the best route?" editorial, Feb. 7. Most certainly. After free needles are provided to citizens with diabetes, everyone gets free legal drugs that are prescribed by physicians, B.C. parks are properly funded, citizens on disability get drugs free, the E&N is fully funded so passenger trains again run, a Malahat bypass is built, highways are properly maintained, ferries are free for everyone who lives on Vancouver Island, etc. Until then, no free heroin should even be considered. People need to be responsible for the consequences of their actions. N.F. Jamieson Campbell River [end]
More than 900 British Columbians died of illicit drug overdoses last year. That's 80 per cent more than 2015, and the highest total ever recorded in our province. Nor is there an end in sight. Drug deaths climbed throughout 2016, reaching 142 in the month of December alone. If that trend continues, we could conceivably see 1,700 fatalities or more this year. Those are disastrous numbers. The main effort to curtail fentanyl deaths has focused on the antidote naloxone. Kits are being handed out to users, their families and first-response teams across the province. [continues 518 words]
The overdose crisis, especially in British Columbia, has become an issue of moral panic, and everyone is paying attention. The B.C. Coroner's Report for 2016 revealed a shocking number of deaths from overdose - 914, which far surpassed previous records and is nearly three times the number of deaths from automobile collisions. This crisis impacts us all and it requires a radical shift in the ways all provinces provide health care. Unfortunately, the human and financial toll continues to rise because we continue to view illicit substance use as a moral and criminal issue rather than the healthcare issue it is. As a health-care social worker on the front line, I am lending my voice to those with substance-use disorders, the ostracized and overlooked. [continues 555 words]
Vancouver's Hedy Fry differs from the prime minister on where the national dialogue on fentanyl should go In 1999, Dr. Hedy Fry flew to Switzerland to learn about how the European country had responded to a surge in drug-overdose deaths. "I travelled around with the police," the Liberal MP for Vancouver Centre recounted in a telephone interview. If they found someone addicted to drugs who was injecting on the street, Fry continued, the police would stop and offer to take the individual to a clinic where there were a doctor and nurses. [continues 921 words]
Prescribing medicinal heroin to prevent overdose deaths might appear to clash with common sense, but the provincial health officer in B.C. is backing the idea because he says European-style drug treatment programs work. The arrival of the powerful opioid fentanyl drove B.C.'s death toll to a new peak last year of 914 overdose deaths, almost 80 per cent higher than the 510 deaths recorded by the provincial coroner in 2015. Dr. Perry Kendall said he wants support from colleagues in health care and law enforcement to push the province to create treatment programs that prescribe a pharmaceutical-grade version of heroin, called diacetylmorphine. "It may be counterintuitive for people, but they have been shown to improve functioning, improve physical health, improve mental health," said Kendall. "They certainly get people out of illegal drug markets and many of those people have gone on to have relatively stable lives." [continues 312 words]
Governor Hogan announces heroin crisis initiatives Governor Larry Hogan announces a number of new initiatives to combat the statewide heroin crisis at a press conference at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. (Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette) Governor Larry Hogan announces a number of new initiatives to combat the statewide heroin crisis at a press conference at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. (Joshua McKerrow / Capital Gazette) Gov. Larry Hogan and Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford came to Anne Arundel Medical Center Tuesday to announce new initiatives aimed at combating a rising tide of heroin abuse across the state. [continues 444 words]
One woman relied on old needles used by her friend's diabetic husband. Another settled for whatever syringes she could find. But for the first time since they started using drugs several years ago, both women have access to fresh syringes. They are getting them through a needle exchange in Frankfort. "If you can have a new one every time, why wouldn't you?" asked the younger of the two women, who both spoke to the CJ on condition of anonymity for fear of being stigmatized or getting fired. "I think it's awesome that they're doing this. [continues 1730 words]
[Name redacted] of Denville, was charged by Wayne police with possession of heroin.(Photo: Courtesy of Wayne Police) [Name redacted], 26, of Denville was arrested and charged with possession of 39 bags of heroin, among other charges, on Jan. 4. According to police records, Officer Tomasz Cydzik observed a 2000 Honda Civic parked in the CVS parking lot on Hamburg Turnpike with her head down "as if unconscious" around 9:40 p.m. When the officer approached, [name redacted] opened her eyes and police observed an uncapped syringe inside the vehicle, according to police reports. After further investigation, five Suboxone under-the-tongue films, one Clonazepam pill, a sandwich-sized plastic bag containing suspected marijuana, two additional hypodermic needles, multiple open glassine bags of suspected heroin, 39 additional bags of heroin stamped "suicide squad" and one small zip lock bag containing suspected cocaine, police records show. [continues 59 words]
At four in the morning, the hospital's emergency department lights fluoresce directly into your brain. Everyone, everything looks green, especially the midnight heroin users. They are always shivering. Partly the withdrawal, partly the cold, damp Connecticut weather. They tend not to have proper jackets. On a stretcher in the hallway, a 25-year-old "opioid withdrawal" is curled up with three hospital blankets pulled over his head. I gently shake his leg, but nothing is really gentle here. I introduce myself and whisper a question about what brought him in. No response. [continues 693 words]
Over a 12-hour period in Beverly Hills, two sisters and a boyfriend of one of the them were rushed to the hospital after accidentally overdosing on heroin. Police say all three are lucky to be alive. "The boy was the luckiest," said Detective Sgt. Lee Davis of the Beverly Hills Public Safety Department. "Two of our detectives went to his house about the two prior overdoses and they found him totally unresponsive and all alone. If they didn't show up, this probably would have been a totally different story." [continues 495 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]
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]
A part-time Donora police officer has been arrested for stealing 133 stamp bags of heroin that were seized as evidence after the execution of a search warrant. James B. Johnson V, 29, of Monongahela, was charged Tuesday with several drug offenses, theft, obstruction, tampering and misapplication of entrusted property. The charges were announced today by the Washington County district attorney's office. Authorities accused Officer Johnson of stealing the evidence following an Aug. 10 seizure. Police said Officer Johnson admitted to the theft and said he took the heroin "for his personal consumption." [continues 250 words]
Six months ago, AJ Solomon visited Gov. Chris Christie at the State House to apologize for using heroin while a member of the governor's advance team. [photo] Governor Chris Christie told the story of AJ Solomon, a recovering heroin addict, to illustrate his focus on combating drug addiction in New Jersey. Here, the Governor hugs Solomon as he exits after the address.(Photo: Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com) Six months ago, AJ Solomon visited Gov. Chris Christie at the State House to apologize for what he felt was the ultimate betrayal -- using heroin while a member of the governor's advance team in 2012 and 2013. [continues 629 words]
