Tag: News

Can Combining Opioids And Benzos Increase Overdose Risk?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

When used in combination with opioids, benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium can make an individual five times more likely to overdose, a new study published in JAMA Network Open has determined.

The study found that benzodiazepines, which are often prescribed for anxiety, can increase the likelihood of overdose when used with opioids, especially in the first 90 days they are used together.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that more than 30% of all overdose deaths that involve opioids also involve benzodiazepines.

The new study looked at data from over 71,000 people on Medicare Part D. Researchers divided patients into two groups: those who had taken only opioids prior to overdosing and those who had both opioids and benzodiazepines. Researchers “subdivided [the second group] by the cumulative number of days the patients had taken an opioid with a benzo,” Forbes states.

The results showed that for individuals taking both forms of medication, overdose risk was five times higher during the first three months when compared to those using only an opioid.

For the 90 days after the first three months, the risk of overdose doubled. After six months, the risk decreased to the same likelihood as taking only opioids.

“Patients who must be prescribed both an opioid and a benzodiazepine should be closely monitored by health care professionals due to an increased risk for overdose, particularly in the early days of this medication regimen,” lead study author Inmaculada Hernandez, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, said in a press release.

A 2017 study published in the BMJ found that from 2001 to 2013, simultaneous opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions in 315,000 privately insured patients increased by 80%.

As such, one of the factors that researchers considered was the number of clinicians involved with a patient. They found that the more clinicians there were prescribing drugs to a single patient, the greater the risk of overdose.

“These findings demonstrate that fragmented care plays a role in the inappropriate use of opioids, and having multiple prescribers who are not in communication increases the risk for overdose,” said senior study author Yuting Zhang, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, according to Forbes.

This study is not the only one of its kind, as the relationship between opioids and benzodiazepines and the associated risks has been studied previously.

Additionally, earlier in 2018, the FDA published a warning about the potential for respiratory depression issues when taking both medications together, since both depress the central nervous system.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
Sean Penn's Son Hopper Settles Drug Possession Case

In April, police reportedly confiscated a variety of drugs from Penn and his girlfriend during a traffic stop.

Hopper Penn, son of actors Robin Wright and Sean Penn, pleaded no contest regarding an April misdemeanor drug charge, according to USA Today.

In April, the 24-year-old actor was pulled over by police for failure to signal on a Nebraska highway with his girlfriend, Uma Von Wittkamp. Penn and Von Wittkamp were both charged with possession of psilocybin mushrooms, while Penn had an additional charge of marijuana possession and Von Wittkamp was charged with possession of amphetamines, reportedPeople magazine.

In total, police confiscated 14 grams of marijuana, four amphetamine pills, and three grams of psychedelic mushrooms.

Penn and Wittkamp were both released on separate bonds of $25,000.

Originally Penn and Wittkamp were both charged with a felony. In Nebraska, possession of a controlled substance is a felony that is punishable with a maximum of two years in prison, one year of post-release supervision, and a $10,000 fine.

However, the couple pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of attempt of a felony. In addition, they each paid a $1,000 fine. A no contest plea allows a defendant to acknowledge that there might be enough evidence for a conviction without admitting guilt.

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Hopper Penn had described how a traumatic brain injury, surgery, the subsequent loss of his passion for skateboarding, and his parents’ divorce, led to problems at age 16.

“I was doing a lot of stuff,” he says, “but meth was the main one that brought me down. I went to rehab because I woke up in a hospital and my dad was like, ‘Rehab? Or bus bench?’ I was like, ‘I’ll take the bed.’ Thank God I got out of that because that was the worst time in my life. Because it’s not fun when it gets to a point where you just need it.”

Radar Online reported that Sean Penn had bailed his son out of jail with the order that he go to a long-term rehabilitation center.

Radar quoted a source who said of Sean Penn and his son, “He wants him to check into a long-term facility and clean himself up for good, or else. This is the last straw for him and as much as this pains him, Hopper is just lucky he is still alive.”

Hopper Penn isn’t the only one struggling in the family—unfortunately his sister, Dylan Penn, also has issues with addiction. Radar reported that in 2015, Dylan was arrested for DUI and subsequently spent three month in a rehabilitation facility. She is on parole until 2019.

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
States Consider Foster Care Alternatives As They Grapple With Parental Addiction

Some states are taking approaches that focus on reducing the trauma of separation from the child while encouraging parents to continue treatment.

A new report from The Hill notes that the rise in the number of children who enter foster care has forced state governments to rethink the notion of separating families while parents undergo treatment for substance dependency.

States such as New Jersey, which has struggled with high rates of opioid overdose, and Colorado are implementing programs which allow children to remain with the parent in treatment, or combinations of care by relatives with enhanced mental health services for the parents.

In both cases, the hope is twofold: to reduce the trauma of separation from the child and encourage the parents to continue with treatment.

Statistics have shown that after a decade of decline in the number of children entering the national foster care system, caseloads in 36 states rose by 10% between 2012 and 2016. The opioid epidemic was credited with much of the increase in many states, which treated substance dependency in a home with children as a form of abuse and therefore worthy of removing the children.

However, as the numbers for both opioid dependency and foster care admission continue to rise, state agencies have begun to regard the approach as “impounding trauma upon trauma,” as Jason Butkowski, a spokesperson for New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families, stated.

“Children do better when they’re with family,” said Wendi Turner, executive director of the Ohio Family Care Association. And several states have launched a variety of programs designed to enable that arrangement. In Nebraska, the state Division of Children and Family Services initiated its Mom and Me program, which grants long-term residential treatment for mothers in recovery and allows them to remain with dependent children ages eight and under.

In New Jersey, state services do not equate exposure to substances taken by mothers as a form of child abuse, which grants the state more options to provide assistance to adults and their dependent children.

And in Washington, D.C., foster care numbers have declined due to their use of kinship care programs, in which a relative takes in a child deemed at risk instead of a state program, along with Medicaid-funded treatment programs.

In all cases, states are taking the stance that by eliminating the potential for stigma or trauma on children, parents may be more willing to seek treatment and hopefully keep their families together. New Jersey spokesperson Butkowski noted that in some cases, “folks aren’t reaching out for services because addiction is such a charged term.”

Colorado has embraced this notion through its Lift the Label campaign, which seeks to inform the public about opioid dependency and recovery, and “provide a message of hope from people who used to feel hopeless,” according to a Department of Human Services press release.

“We want people to know if they are ready to seek help, we’ve got their back,” said department head Reggie Bicha.

In all cases, states hope that the sympathetic approach will generate greater interest in their various treatment programs and in turn, bring down foster care numbers.

“Put the person first,” said Butkowski. “We’re asking the question, ‘What happened? Why are you in this place in your life?’ rather than ‘What did you do? How can you make it better?’”

View the original article at thefix.com

28 June 2018
Can Blue Lights Deter Public Drug Use?

Public health experts say the blue lights make people more prone to hurting themselves and further stigmatize those who struggle with addiction.

As the nation struggles with an ever-worsening opioid epidemic, some retailers are experimenting with an innovative solution to curb the drug use that takes place in their facilities.

According to USA Today, a number of convenience stores and supermarkets have installed blue-colored lightbulbs in their restrooms. The strategy is simple; the blue lighting makes it all but impossible for people to see their veins, which retailers hope will prevent them from shooting up.

“The hardest-core opiate user still wants to be accurate. They want to make sure the needle goes in the right spot,” said Read Hayes, the director of the Loss Prevention Research Council.

The Council develops methods to deter theft and violent crime at retail stores. When it comes to drug users shooting up in the semi-privacy of public bathroom stalls, Hayes hopes to “disrupt that process” with the blue lights.

Turkey Hill Minit Markets, a Pennsylvania chain of convenience stores with over 260 locations, partnered with the Loss Prevention Research Council to test whether the blue bulbs will do the trick in driving down drug use. While the study is just six months old, early word from its 20 test stores has been positive.

Turkey Hill reports that employees haven’t found any used needles or people slumped over from an overdose. Matt Dorgan, Turkey Hill’s asset protection manager, knew it was time to take action in neighborhoods that have been slammed by the opioid crisis.

“We realized we need to do something to protect our associates and our customers,” Dorgan said. “We’re not finding hardly anything anymore. It’s a pretty dramatic reduction. We haven’t had a single overdose.”

Not everyone is convinced that blue lights are the answer, however. In previous research studies, opioid users said they’d shoot up anywhere “if it meant avoiding withdrawal symptoms,” USA Today reported.

Public health experts also say the blue lights only make people more prone to hurting themselves, not to mention further stigmatizing those who struggle with addiction.

Also, people who are accustomed to injecting themselves won’t be deterred by a room bathed in blue light. Someone suffering from withdrawal “is going to want to use as soon as possible, even if the location is not optimal,” said Brett Wolfson-Stofko, a researcher at the National Development & Research Institutes, who has studied injection drug use in public places.

Other experts advocate for more practical solutions like needle disposal containers.

Meanwhile, some areas have taken the blue-light concept to new levels, USA Today reported. The city of Philadelphia, wracked by a 30% increase in opioid overdoses last year, has started distributing “needle kits” to its residents. The kit includes “a blue bulb for the front porch, no-trespassing signs, a tool to pick up used syringes, a needle disposal box and contact information for social services.”

The city has given out over 100 kits since January. If the kits prove successful, the program could be expanded and potentially become a solution for similarly hard-hit areas.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
China Presses US To Reduce Opioid Demands

“When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it,” said one Chinese official.

China’s drug control agency has challenged the U.S. to sharply reduce its demand for opioids, The Hill reported. The agency specifically called out the United States’ role in driving demand for drugs like fentanyl.

“It’s common knowledge that most new psychoactive substances (NPS) have been designed in laboratories in the United States and Europe, and their deep-processing and consumption also mostly take place there,” said Liu Yuejin, deputy chair of China’s National Narcotics Control Commission. “The U.S. should adopt a comprehensive and balanced strategy to reduce and suppress the huge demand in the country for fentanyl and other similar drugs as soon as possible. When fewer and fewer Americans use fentanyl, there would be no market for it.”

While the U.S. doesn’t deny the situation, a congressional report from 2017 singled out China as the “top source” of all fentanyl in the U.S. The year-long probe found that fentanyl could be easily purchased online from Chinese labs and mailed to buyers in the U.S.

Last November, on a state visit to Beijing, President Trump said that China and the U.S. would work together to curb the “flood of cheap and deadly” Chinese-made fentanyl from making it stateside. China quickly disputed the claim that it was responsible for the “flood” of fentanyl into the U.S.

A recent Bloomberg feature called fentanyl “an Internet-era plague,” though fentanyl has been around since 1960.

At the time, it was the world’s “strongest opioid approved for human medical use,” and intended to treat extreme pain and to help put surgical patients to sleep. Fentanyl is said to be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine.

In 2014, Bloomberg noted, fentanyl killed 5,000 people in the U.S. By September 2017, the drug was responsible for more than 26,000 deaths, accounting for more than half of all opioid-related deaths that year.

“China’s drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States,” Liu insisted. “But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids.”

China doesn’t deny that some of the NPS in America were manufactured on Chinese soil, but said that “the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself,” The Hill noted.

Liu contends that Beijing has already taken steps to curb the production and export of synthetic drugs like fentanyl. They have even gone so far as to place fentanyl and 22 other compounds on a controlled-substances list. Liu also said that current political tensions between China and the U.S. wouldn’t affect China’s resolve in putting an end to the manufacture and trafficking of those drugs.

“The U.S. should strengthen its crackdown on distributors, traffickers and drug-related criminal rings,” Liu argued, adding that it should “investigate and arrest more lawbreakers.”

Last year, Trump labeled the opioid crisis as a public health emergency (stopping short of calling it a full-scale national emergency), and promised a comprehensive awareness campaign to help deter people from abusing drugs.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Massive Drug Spoon Sculpture Dropped At Purdue Pharma HQ

The message behind the guerrilla art exhibit is to call attention to the potential danger of prescription opioids.

A gallery owner was arrested Friday morning (June 22) after placing a sculpture of a massive steel spoon at the headquarters of Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

Fernando Louis Alvarez was arrested and charged with obstruction of free passage, a criminal misdemeanor. The sculpture was displayed in front of the Stamford, Connecticut office for about two hours until it was hauled away by city workers.

The 800-pound, 10.5-foot-long work of “guerrilla art” appears burnt and bent at the handle, a sight familiar to people who heat up and inject heroin. The artist, Domenic Esposito, of Westwood, Massachusetts, described how his family was affected by his brother Danny’s nearly 14-year addiction to heroin, which began with OxyContin and Percocet.

“My mom would call me in a panic… screaming she found another burnt spoon. This is a story thousands of families go through. He’s lucky to be alive,” he said, according to the Hartford Courant.

“The spoon has always been an albatross for my family. It’s kind of an emotional symbol, a dark symbol for me,” he added.

The message behind the art exhibit is to call attention to the potential danger of prescription opioids, and to call on the federal government to “step in and do something,” Esposito said. Danny has been sober for the last four months.

Purdue Pharma is among several pharmaceutical companies being targeted by lawsuits across cities, counties, and states that believe these entities had a hand in worsening the opioid crisis. Purdue, specifically, is accused of using deceptive marketing and downplaying the risk of addiction to promote OxyContin.

The company has since announced that it will no longer market OxyContin to doctors, and just last week, laid off its entire sales team.

Purdue released a statement on Friday regarding Esposito’s sculpture: “We share the protestors’ concern about the opioid crisis, and respect their right to peacefully express themselves. Purdue is committed to working collaboratively with those affected by this public health crisis on meaningful solutions to help stem the tide of opioid-related overdose deaths.”

The night of the guerrilla art display, Alvarez hosted the opening of a full exhibit on the opioid crisis at his art gallery in Stamford.

The spoon has reportedly been submitted as evidence.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
FDA Approves First Cannabis-Based Drug For Debilitating Seizures

The DEA must re-classify cannabidiol (CBD) before the medication can be available to patients.

On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Epidiolex, a cannabidiol (CBD) treatment for debilitating epilepsy beginning in children as young as 1 or even younger.

Cannabidiol is a chemical compound (cannabinoid) of the cannabis plant known for its pain-relieving and anti-seizure properties, among others. However, it differs from THC, another cannabinoid, by not producing the “high” that marijuana is known for.

Epidiolex was approved for the treatment of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome, both characterized by frequent and debilitating seizures that severely delay or limit a child’s development.

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome can appear in children as young as 3-5 years old, while Dravet syndrome appears during infancy.

According to STAT News, Epidiolex was shown to reduce the number of seizures by about 40% in patients with either disorder.

“The FDA is committed to this kind of careful scientific research and drug development,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. “Controlled clinical trials testing the safety and efficacy of a drug, along with careful review through the FDA’s drug approval process, is the most appropriate way to bring marijuana-derived treatments to patients.”

However, drug maker GW Pharmaceuticals will have to wait until the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) decides whether to re-classify cannabidiol before it can be available to patients.

Currently CBD is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning that, by the federal government’s definition, it has no medical value and a high potential for abuse. STAT News reports that the DEA will make a decision in the next 90 days.

Drugs that mimic the anti-nausea and appetite-inducing properties of THC have long been FDA-approved for treating chemotherapy patients and HIV/AIDS patients.

Over a dozen U.S. states have passed legislation specifically to allow CBD for debilitating epilepsy, many of them to help children.

The FDA’s decision gives hope to families living in non-medical marijuana states who have struggled to legally obtain and use CBD products for these conditions.

Alexis Bortell is one patient who could have benefited from legal CBD in all 50 states.

Bortell made headlines last year for being the 12-year-old girl who sued Attorney General Jeff Sessions for promoting the anti-marijuana policy that made it difficult for her to treat her intractable epilepsy that she’s suffered since she was 7 years old.

Her family ultimately moved from Texas to Colorado—where cannabis is legal for both medical and adult use—so they could legally access CBD medication, which she says has allowed her to be seizure-free for about three years now.

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Gene Simmons On Why He Joined The Cannabis Movement

The outspoken rock legend explains why he decided to become a cannabis ambassador despite his long-standing abstinence from drugs and alcohol.

KISS founder and bassist Gene Simmons is a tireless promoter and pitchman for both the dizzying array of merchandise for his band (including coffins and cremation urns) and other businesses, ranging from life insurance to car racing leagues and beverages.

His latest entrepreneurial move has linked him with an industry with which he’s maintained some distance in the past: Simmons will serve as “Chief Evangelist Officer” for Invictus MD Strategies Corp., a publicly traded Canadian cannabis production and distribution company.

The move may seem contrary to Simmons’ long-standing abstinence from drugs and alcohol, from which he’s abstained for more than four decades, but the Rock & Roll hall-of-famer had a change of heart after learning about how marijuana use has appeared to improve the health and lives of many individuals.

Simmons has described himself as “a straight guy who’s never smoked and never been drunk,” and took a fairly hardline approach to cannabis use in the past. “I was one of those people who said cannabis is the same thing as heroin,” he told High Times. He also admits that his initial interest in Invictus was purely motivated by financial opportunity. “[Cannabis] is a remarkably expanding marketplace, which means people want it.”

But after delving into some of the research about marijuana’s medicinal properties, especially in regard to aiding individuals with serious medical conditions, including severe epilepsy, Simmons stated that he “was arrogant about the whole thing” and believed that marijuana “has great medical potential,” adding, “I want lawmakers to really get educated on cannabis-related topics. I want them to get their information from people who don’t have a political agenda, like a six-year-old girl with epilepsy being prescribed cannabis-based products, which seem to be miraculously either minimizing or completely curious various ailments.”

As Invictus’ Chief Evangelist Officer, Simmons will help raise public awareness about the company’s upcoming projects as its spokesperson and media consultant.

“Gene will lead marketing initiatives that will help spread the positive messages that dwell at the heart of Invictus,” said CEO Dan Kriznic. The timing for such a media push couldn’t be better for the company, given Canada’s recent and historic vote to legalize marijuana.

Simmons appeared to embrace his new role as cannabis ambassador. “When I show the research to my family and friends, everyone is really excited and positive about it, because this is a good thing,” he said. “I have still never smoked or done any kind of cannabis products, but you can bet your bottom dollar [that] if my children were suffering from an ailment and a doctor said they could benefit from a cannabis-based product, I would not hesitate for an instant.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Lawmaker Fights For Addiction Treatment That Her Mom Desperately Needed

“When my mother asked for help and there was no place to go, it was one of the most hopeless feelings I ever had. That was the moment that inspired me to do this work.”

After winning a seat in the Colorado state legislature in 2012, Brittany Pettersen tried her best to focus on her blossoming career. For her own health, that involved limiting her contact with her mother, Stacy, who had been living with active addiction for decades.

“As a family we have been preparing for my mom’s death our entire lives,” Pettersen told The LA Times. Stacy’s addiction was so severe that at one point she overdosed 20 times in 16 months.

Still, Pettersen’s colleagues in the legislature knew nothing of her mother’s situation, and Pettersen couldn’t bring herself to work on addiction and recovery issues professionally.

“I honestly never wanted to touch the issue of opioids because it was too personal,” she said. “I felt like if I can’t help my mom how can I help anyone else?”

Last August, Stacy overdosed yet again. She was resuscitated in the emergency room of a hospital near Denver and then moved to the intensive care unit. There, Stacy finally asked for help. Yet all her Medicaid would cover was three days of detox. Pettersen was heartbroken and furious.

“When my mother asked for help and there was no place to go, it was one of the most hopeless feelings I ever had,” Pettersen said. “That was the moment that inspired me to do this work. My mom’s been using drugs for more than 30 years, she needs more than three days of detox. That’s a joke.”

Luckily, Pettersen was able to get a court-order that put Stacy in a treatment program for two months involuntarily. Now, Stacy has been sober for seven months, and Pettersen has decided to share her family’s story in order to advocate for better addiction treatment services in Colorado.

Pettersen is now working on legislation that would require Medicaid in Colorado to cover impatient and residential drug abuse treatment programs, rather than just covering three days of detox. Although the change would cost Colorado an estimated $34 million, it would bring in about $100 million in federal dollars, Pettersen said, in addition to cutting costs of emergency services.

“It takes upfront costs to get out of a crisis,” she said.

In April, Stacy testified in front of the Colorado state legislature in support of the bill.

“Hello, my name is Stacy Pettersen. Some of you know me as Brittany’s mom,” she said. “My last 30 years have been tragic for my family and me, but I am here to tell the unexpected ending—that I am alive and have been sober for over seven months because I finally got the help I needed.”

Later, she talked about her hopes for recovery, including making amends with her children after decades of neglect.

“I’d like to try and repair the damage I’ve done to my children,” Stacy said. “I want to make the most of the time I have left and be the best mom I can be.”

View the original article at thefix.com

27 June 2018
Buprenorphine Exposure Affects Kids At Alarming Rates

The number of children exposed to the addiction drug rose 215% over three years.

As the opioid crisis continues to grow, some children are being put at risk as they are exposed to buprenorphine, an opioid medication used to treat opioid use disorder.

A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that from 2007 to 2016, more than 11,200 calls were made to poison control centers in the U.S. with concerns about children being exposed to buprenorphine. Of those, 86% were about children under age 6 and 89% were unintentional exposures.

“This is never prescribed for children under 6. It is a significant risk to them,” Henry Spiller, director of the Central Ohio Poison Center and an author of the study, told CNN. “We’re not quite sure why it stands out so much. Perhaps the parents who have this may not think it’s as risky as their other opiates because it doesn’t have the big effect that the other opiates do for them.”

Of the 11,275 children exposed to the medication, the overall exposure rate per 1 million grew by more than 215% from 2007 to 2010. It then decreased 42.6% from 2010 to 2013, before increasing again in 2016 by 8.6%.

Dr. Jason Kane, an associate professor of pediatrics and critical care at University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital, tells CNN that the increase in exposure has to do with the increase in adults using buprenorphine as a treatment option.

“This is not the first study to show these data, but it is the latest study to show a medication whose design it is to help adults with narcotic or opioid addiction is ending up poisoning, mostly unintentionally, children and in particular those who are most vulnerable,” Kane said.

Buprenorphine is an opioid receptor stimulant as well as a blocker. It is considered an opioid but does not have the same effect as other opioids for adults, thought it can still be habit-forming. For children, however, it can have a stronger effect on the respiratory system.

“In adults, the respiratory depression, the part that slows the breathing and you stop breathing, is limited, and so there’s a lot less respiratory depression in adults,” Spiller told CNN. “That’s why it was felt to be safer. Unfortunately, in very young children under 5, preschoolers, toddlers, infants… that protection isn’t there, and they do get this respiratory depression. It does affect their breathing.”

Of adolescent exposures, 77% were intentional and more than one-quarter used the medication with another substance.

“It was surprising that adolescents were actually using it for abuse. It’s very specific,” Spiller told CNN. “You have to be in a program to get this. It’s carefully managed. It’s not widely available… It is available on the street, but essentially, the majority of this is from these management programs and someone’s in therapy, someone in the house, them or a family member.”

According to CNN, study authors expect the number of exposures to continue to increase.

To limit exposure, Kane recommends disposing unused medications, using child-proof caps and making sure medications are labeled correctly.

“Seven children under the age of 6 died as a result of an accidental poisoning from this drug, which was present in someone’s home, prescribed with the goal of making someone else better,” Kane said to CNN, adding, “that’s a striking thing for me.”

View the original article at thefix.com

26 June 2018