Answer Addiction

Tag: opioid epidemic

  • Rapper Lil Xan Checks into Rehab

    Rapper Lil Xan Checks into Rehab

    Lil Xan had announced in November that he intended to enter rehab but he had issues finding a bed in a treatment facility.

    Lil Xan has gone to rehab for the first time, according to an Instagram post penned by his girlfriend. Lil Xan, or Diego Leanos, is a 22-year-old rapper from the west coast with a big following. Since the recent overdose deaths of Mac Miller and Lil Peep – both idols of Lil Xan – those around Xan had heightened concerns about his safety.

    Lil Xan recently got tattoos memorializing Mac Miller, and CNN reported that Xan said in an interview that Miller’s death made him want to quit music.

    Lil Xan entered rehab hoping this would be a new start to his life; he declared his rap moniker would be changed from Xan, which is short for Xanax, to his actual name, Diego.

    Diego had announced in November that he intended to enter rehab, but had issues finding a bed in a treatment facility. On December 2, Diego’s girlfriend Annie wrote on his Instagram:

    “This sweet angel of mine officially entered rehab this morning. I’m sorry for all the confusion circulating about Diego leaving for rehab,” Smith wrote alongside a photo of Diego. “It’s a tricky thing since people are coming in and out of the facility so often that rooms end up getting switched around and dates can be pushed back. I’m so beyond proud of this precious boy for being the strongest person I know and for wanting to live a better life. Please keep him in your prayers, he is doing his best right now to find peace with himself. We love you all so much, and we appreciate all of the support. I love him beyond words and cannot wait to see what the future holds for our family. xanarchy family – love, Annie”

    A later Instagram post, also by Annie, read, “Diego was just admitted into his first treatment. He loves each and every one of you sending good wishes and prayers to him,” she captioned a selfie of the musician. “We thank you all so very much for all of the love and support you are sending his way. He will be back soon, with another top 10 album we love you all xanarchy family ! – love, Annie”

    Diego has been public about his ongoing struggle with opioid addiction. In November he told TMZ, “As far as my sobriety goes right now, there was a long period of time where I was clean. But I relapsed. . . . Any other addict would understand that that s—t just happens. You just relapse — you don’t want to — and then you get clean again. It’s like a process. You need treatment and help and sometimes that doesn’t even help. It has to come from within. That’s what I’ve learned.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Michael Bloomberg To Spend $50 Million to Fight Addiction

    Michael Bloomberg To Spend $50 Million to Fight Addiction

    Michael Bloomberg wrote about his intentions to fight the opioid epidemic in the 10 states hit hardest by it in a recent op-ed. 

    Former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced that he will spend $50 million to fight the opioid epidemic, focusing on 10 states that are hardest-hit by drug overdoses. 

    “The opioid epidemic is a national health crisis of historic proportion. Yet the federal government is still not tackling it with the urgency it requires,” Bloomberg wrote in an op-ed for USA Today.  “What’s truly needed is a comprehensive strategy that includes the policy changes necessary to stem the epidemic and overcome barriers to treatment. We are not waiting around for the federal government to provide that strategy.”

    Grants will be made through Bloomberg Philanthropies, beginning with a three-year grant to Pennsylvania, which is expected to be about $10 million, according to The Washington Post. Pennsylvania has an overdose rate of about twice the national average but also has an innovative approach to fighting drug addiction, including an Opioid Command Center that meets weekly. The Bloomberg grant will help support that and similar programs aimed at reducing the overdose death rate. 

    “States have already been leading in ways Washington hasn’t, and foundations can offer resources and expertise that can help them accelerate their work now,” Bloomberg wrote. 

    Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said that his state was chosen because they’re already doing good work in fighting the opioid epidemic but still have lots of problems to confront. 

    “I think Bloomberg Philanthropies was looking for a commonwealth or a state that was actually doing something,” Wolf told The Washington Post. “What I would hope is we can use the $10 million as a really generous add-on to the kinds of things we’re already doing.”

    Bloomberg hopes to fund initiatives that can be replicated and help solve the overdose epidemic nationally. 

    “What we think we can do with $50 million is show the way in these 10 states,” Bloomberg said. “If they do things that we think make sense, then we will help fund it.”

    It was not immediately clear which other states would benefit from Bloomberg’s grant money. However, the philanthropist hopes that the funds will make a difference to families across the nation.

    “The pain, suffering, and death from opioid abuse is truly a national emergency. In just the time it took to read this commentary, another child has been removed from his or her parents’ care because of a parent’s opioid use,” he wrote. “Solving this crisis will not be easy. But states have a chance to show the federal government that bolder actions can save lives. And with so many communities crying out for leadership, there is no time to waste.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Melania Trump Discusses Opioid Epidemic

    Melania Trump Discusses Opioid Epidemic

    During her speech, Trump detailed startling statistics about the opioid epidemic but urged students to look beyond those numbers. 

    First Lady Melania Trump spoke with college students about the opioid epidemic last week, calling the current situation the “worst drug crisis in American history.”

    Trump appeared at a town hall meeting at Liberty University, a Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia. She appeared on a panel hosted by former Fox News personality Eric Bolling, whose son died of an accidental drug overdose last year. 

    During the panel, Trump said she has seen how deeply the country has been affected by opioid abuse as she explores the issue as part of her “Be Best” campaign to emphasize emotional wellbeing. 

    “When I took on opioid abuse as one of the pillars of my initiative ‘Be Best,’ I did it with the goal of helping children of all ages. I have visited several hospitals and facilities that are dedicated to helping all who have been affected by this disease — including people who are addicted, babies born addicted and families coping with addiction of a loved one,” she said to the students at Liberty University, according to CNN. “What has struck me with each visit is how this epidemic has touched so many people — whether it is because of personal use, or that of family members, friends, coworkers or neighbors — opioid addiction is an illness that has truly taken hold of our country.” 

    During her speech, Trump detailed the statistics about the opioid epidemic but urged students to look beyond those numbers. 

    “I also believe you have the capacity to not think of this in terms of statistics, but to think of this as a human story and an opportunity to save lives,” she said.

    She added that everyone needs to be aware of the danger of opioids and of how to support someone who is struggling with substance use disorder. 

    “While you may never personally become addicted, the chances of you knowing someone who struggles with it are very high,” she said. “And if you, or someone you know needs help, you need to be brave enough to ask, or strong enough to stand with them as they fight through the disease.”

    Trump also told students that through her “Be Best” campaign she hopes to help kids realize that the actions they take now can affect them for years to come.

    “I saw it as an opportunity to speak with all of you as you enter a critical stage of your lives,” she told students, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “The independence that comes with being a young adult is exciting but overwhelming… I know college is a time of independence. I am here to remind you some of those decisions, though they may seem minor at the time, could negatively impact you for the rest of your lives.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Dentist Wrote 200 Opioid Prescriptions For Five Patients In One Year

    Dentist Wrote 200 Opioid Prescriptions For Five Patients In One Year

    The dentist who wrote the opioid prescriptions claims state investigator were “telling lies” but he did not provide or clarify any additional details.

    A dentist in Tennessee has had his professional license revoked for reportedly writing approximately 200 prescriptions for opioid medications to just five patients, some of whom were never physically present in his office.

    A discipline report from the Tennessee Department of Health revealed that Michael R. Tittle, 64, who maintained a dental practice in the small town of Erwin, Tennessee, allegedly lacked the proper records to justify writing the prescriptions, which in one case totaled 71 prescriptions for 10 hydrocodone pills over the course of just six months.

    In a statement to the Tennessean, Tittle claimed that state investigators were “telling lies,” but he did not provide or clarify any additional details.

    In addition to the revocation of his license, Tittle was also assessed a civil penalty of $13,000, plus court costs not to exceed $3,000. These details, as well as the allegations against Dr. Tittle, were made public on November 15 as part of a monthly discipline report by the state Department of Health, which maintains public records on doctors and other health care professionals throughout the state. 

    According to the report, Tittle’s office came under investigation after the Department of Health received a complaint about his prescribing practices while on a five-year probation for multiple infection control violations. After reviewing his Controlled Substance Monitoring Database report, the Department requested 13 dental records; these were found to lack “a concise description and justification for the amount and frequency of controlled substances,” according to the report. 

    Prescription records for five patients were also highlighted in the report; in addition to the aforementioned patient, one patient is reported to have received 49 prescriptions for hydrocodone and 14 prescriptions for oxycodone, totaling 630 tablets, between October 2016 and September 2017.

    Another patient reportedly received 24 prescriptions, totaling 210 tablets, for more than a year after undergoing a root canal, while a third received two prescriptions for oxycodone and two for hydrocodone, all totaling 110 tablets, between August and November 2015, despite the fact that no documentation could confirm that the patient had ever set foot in Tittle’s office.

    The report also noted that Tittle admitted to having a pre-signed, blank prescription slip in his office that had been “copied onto security paper to generate additional pre-signed prescription slips.”

    To settle the case, Tittle agreed to the revocation of his Tennessee dental license as well as $1,000 in civil penalties for each of the 13 records reviewed by the Department of Health and the “actual and reasonable costs” of prosecuting the case. The findings were also reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • West African Clinic Offers Free Methadone, Clean Needles & More

    West African Clinic Offers Free Methadone, Clean Needles & More

    The goal of Senegal’s free program is not only to rehabilitate, but also to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among drug users.

    A clinic in West Africa is doing its part to mitigate the region’s opioid crisis.

    People line up at the Center for the Integrated Management of Addictions (known locally as CEPIAD) in Senegal to receive a daily dose of methadone and counseling. Some travel hours for treatment.

    “You get here, you have your methadone and you are not thinking about taking drugs. You are thinking about moving your life forwards,” says Moustapha Mbodj, who is in recovery from more than 30 years of heroin use.

    A new CNN report highlights CEPIAD’s efforts. Established by the Senegalese government in 2014, the clinic is the first in West Africa to provide free opioid substitution treatment. CEPIAD offers methadone, clean syringes and condoms, as well as skills workshops and help with reintegrating into family networks, according to CNN. It has helped more than 700 people since it opened.

    The goal of the free program is not only to rehabilitate drug users, but to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS among drug users. Over 10% of injecting drug users in Senegal live with HIV, according to United Nations estimates. Among the general population, this number is less than 1%.

    An estimated 1,300 injecting drug users were counted in Dakar (Senegal’s capital) in 2011, according to a voluntary survey by the French National Agency for Research on AIDS.

    In response to the survey, Senegal’s government turned to a harm reduction approach. In a two-year period, public health workers distributed 18,614 clean syringes and 17,564 condoms to the public at no cost.

    The need for such services is rising.

    Senegal is among a handful of African nations that offer this type of free service. According to a 2017 report, out of 37 African nations reporting drug use data to the UN, just eight offer harm reduction approaches, including Senegal, Tanzania, Kenya and Mauritius.

    Pierre Lapaque, a representative with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for West and Central Africa, explained that the market for drugs is growing in a region that previously served only as a transit point for drug traffickers.

    Lapaque says traffickers used a “smart approach” to introduce drugs to a “region where there was absolutely no market ten years ago.”

    “Often what the traffickers are doing is they are paying their support staff not only in cash but in drugs,” said Lapaque.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Drug-Related Deaths Plunge In Ohio: How They Did It

    Drug-Related Deaths Plunge In Ohio: How They Did It

    The fading presence of carfentanil may have played a major role in the decline of drug-related deaths in some parts of Ohio.

    Overdose deaths in Montgomery County—in Dayton, Ohio—have dramatically decreased in 2018. The county has seen an incredible 54% decline in overdose deaths: there were 548 by November 30 last year; this year there have been 250.

    Dayton is an economically-challenged city, deserted of jobs after manufacturers left in droves. Some speculate that this is part of the reason why Dayton had the highest opioid overdose death rates in the nation in 2017.

    The overdose deaths were so rapid and unrelenting that according to Wral.com, the coroner’s office continuously ran out of space, and ended up renting refrigerated trailers. So what has changed?

    The New York Times did extensive research and reporting on the ground to look into the positive changes in Dayton. Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley believes the largest impact on the rate of overdose deaths came from Gov. John Kasich’s decision to expand Medicaid in 2015. This expansion allowed almost 700,000 low-income adults access to free addiction and mental health treatment.

    In addition to the treatments being free for low-income residents, the expansion of Medicaid pulled in more than a dozen new treatment providers within a year. Some of these providers are residential programs and outpatient clinics that utilize methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone for their patients. These are the three FDA-approved medications to treat opioid addiction.

    “It’s the basis — the basis — for everything we’ve built regarding treatment,” NYT reported Mayor Whaley said at City Hall. “If you’re a state that does not have Medicaid expansion, you can’t build a system for addressing this disease.”

    Dayton’s East Held holds a bimonthly event called Conversations for Change, which lays out the available addiction treatment options. Food is served, and anyone attending can meet treatment providers. The New York Times reported the evening they attended there were more than a dozen tables of providers.

    Significant to a large degree is the fading presence on the streets of Dayton of carfentanil, an analog of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. Carfentanil is described by the CDC as 10,000 times more powerful than morphine.

    In recent years carfentanil was very present in Ohio street drugs, for unknown reasons. Mid-2017 carfentanil’s hold began to loosen, possibly because drug traffickers realized they were losing money due to the large upsurge in overdose deaths, said Timothy Plancon, a DEA special agent in charge of Ohio.

    A crucial decision was made by Richard Biehl, Dayton police chief, in 2014. Chief Biehl ordered all officers to carry naloxone, directly contrary to some of his peers in other Ohio cities. Naloxone, or Narcan, is the well-known medication that reverses opioid overdoses if administered in a timely manner.

    Police in Ohio and others elsewhere oppose harm reduction tools like naloxone due to a belief that they simply enable drug use. Still, the evidence is overwhelming that they save lives.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Florida Sues CVS, Walgreens For Their Alleged Roles In Opioid Crisis

    Florida Sues CVS, Walgreens For Their Alleged Roles In Opioid Crisis

    The suit claims that the companies failed to stop “suspicious orders of opioids,” and dispensed “unreasonable quantities” of such drugs.

    The state of Florida has named two of the largest drugstore chains in the United States—Walgreens and CVS—as well as Insys Therapeutics, in a lawsuit that alleged that they “played a role in creating the opioid crisis.”

    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a press release stating that the pharmacy giants and Insys, which manufactured the fentanyl-based medication Subsys had been added to a state-court lawsuit filed on May 15, 2016 against Purdue Pharma, L.P.—the manufacturer of OxyContin—and other pharmaceutical manufacturers for allegedly contributing to the opioid epidemic with their opioid-based products.

    The suit against CVS and Walgreens alleges that the companies failed to stop “suspicious orders of opioids,” and dispensed “unreasonable quantities” of such drugs from their locations.

    In the complaint, the Attorney General’s Office alleged that Walgreens Co.—the largest drugstore chain in the nation—has distributed vast amounts of opioids throughout the state of Florida, and in some cases, reportedly distributed millions of pills that far outnumbered town populations.

    The suit cites an unidentified Florida town where the Walgreens location is alleged to have sold 285,000 pills in a single month to a town with just 3,000 people.

    According to the suit, some stores reportedly experienced six-fold sales growth for pills in just two years time. Walgreens previously paid a record settlement of $80 million in 2013 for violations of record-keeping and dispensing regulations that allowed oxycodone and other pain medications to be diverted for black market sales.

    The accusations against CVS Healthcare Corp. and CVS Pharmacy, Inc.—the second largest U.S. drugstore chain—claim that the company sold more than 700 million opioid products between 2006 and 2014, including three towns that received and dispensed “huge quantities” of opioids during that time frame.

    CVS also paid $22 million to resolve allegations by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that retail stores in the town of Sanford, Florida sold painkillers that were not prescribed for “legitimate medical purposes.”

    The suit’s allegations against Insys Therapeutics echo similar charges levied against the troubled pharmaceutical firm, which has been accused of paying doctors to prescribe Subsys, a medication for patients with breakthrough cancer pain, to patients without cancer or similar diagnoses.

    The suit cites public records that showed that Insys paid $18.7 million to doctors between August 2013 and December 2016, including one Florida physician who received $270,000 from the company.

    According to data from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, more prescriptions for Subsys were written in Florida than in any other state.

    A spokesperson for CVS labeled the lawsuit “without merit” and said that in recent years, the company “has taken numerous actions to strengthen our existing safeguards to help address the nation’s opioid epidemic.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Naloxone Price Spiked 600% During Opioid Crisis By Drug Maker

    Naloxone Price Spiked 600% During Opioid Crisis By Drug Maker

    One drug manufacturer reportedly increased the price of its naloxone drug Evzio from $575 per dose to $4,100 per dose.

    Naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug, has been heralded as a lifesaving intervention credited with helping stem the death toll of the opioid epidemic. However, one drug manufacturer reportedly saw the demand for the drug as a lucrative opportunity, raising its price 600% over the past four years. 

    According to a report commissioned by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE), drug manufacturer Kaléo “exploited the opioid crisis” by increasing the price of its naloxone drug Evzio from $575 per dose to $4,100 per dose. 

    Naloxone can save people’s lives during opioid overdoses by reversing the effects of opioids. Sometimes, in the case of powerful synthetic opioids like fentanyl, multiple doses need to be administered. 

    According to the report, Kaléo intentionally increased the price of Evzio, in addition to manipulating how the drug was processed by insurance companies to take advantage of a money-making opportunity.

    “In conjunction with the price increase, Kaléo launched its new business plan,” the report reads. “The Evzio Commercial Update Executive Summary, pictured here, dated April 2016, noted ‘2016 is critical to long-term success.’ With the increased price and new business model, Kaléo sought to ‘[c]apitalize on the opportunity’ of ‘opioid overdose at epidemic levels—a well-established public health crisis.’”

    The report concluded that Kaléo’s aggressive pricing cost taxpayers $142 million through payments made through Medicare and Medicaid, according to a press release from Portman’s office. 

    “Naloxone is a critically important overdose reversal drug that our first responders have used to save tens of thousands of lives,” Portman said. “The fact that one company dramatically raised the price of its naloxone drug and cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars in increased drug costs, all during a national opioid crisis no less, is simply outrageous. The Subcommittee will continue its efforts to protect taxpayers from drug manufacturers that are exploiting loopholes in the Medicare and Medicaid system in order to profit from a national opioid crisis.”

    Carper agreed, saying, “We know that naloxone can save lives. We need to take the necessary steps to ensure that drugs like this are affordable and accessible to those in need, especially during a public health emergency of this magnitude.”

    In response to the report, Kaléo issued a statement pointing out that it has donated thousands of doses of Evzio, and claimed that it has never turned a profit from the drug. 

    “Patients, not profits, have driven our actions,” the company said.

    Read more about the report’s findings and how Kaléo manipulated pricing here.  

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Philadelphia Clears Out Another "Heroin Camp" As Winter Hits City

    Philadelphia Clears Out Another "Heroin Camp" As Winter Hits City

    It’s the third homeless camping spot cleared out in the Kensington neighborhood in recent months.

    Last week, police in Philadelphia shut down another of the city’s so-called heroin encampments, forcing the area’s homeless from under a railroad bridge and urging them into a local shelter. 

    It’s the third homeless camping spot cleared out in the Kensington neighborhood in recent months, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the forced relocation comes just as the city’s settling in for the cold with the first snowfall of the season. 

    Residents at the encampment were warned last month that they’d need to move, but a few dozen were still on scene Thursday when police, outreach workers and homeless advocates showed up to supervise the relocation. 

    Close to 40 people agreed to enter the low-barrier shelter, a place where residents don’t have a strict curfew keeping them inside at night and they aren’t required to stop using drugs, the newspaper reported. 

    In some parts of the city, the opioid-addicted homeless population has surged in recent months, the Inquirer wrote in September. In Kensington, the number of people living on the street more than doubled in the course of a year, bumping up from 271 in 2017 to 703 a year later, authorities said. 

    “We certainly recognize that things have gotten worse, that the neighborhood is under siege,” Brian Abernathy, the city’s first deputy managing director, told the Inquirer. “People are suffering. We have to do better, and we’re exploring new approaches. We expect to have something soon.”

    The uptick in Kensington homelessness comes even as homelessness in the rest of the city appears to be declining. City officials accounted for 1,355 people living on the street in August of this year, an increase from the 983 counted at the same time last year. 

    The increase in Kensington alone could account for all of that, and officials said the uptick isn’t simply the result of displacement from other areas of the city. 

    “It’s not just a reshuffling,” said Liz Hersh, the city’s Office of Homeless Services director. “It’s an influx.”

    Now, with the clearing of the Frankford camp under the tracks, there’s only one big homeless hotspot left in the neighborhood—the Emerald Street encampment.   

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • New Jersey Sues One Of Its Largest Employers Over Opioids

    New Jersey Sues One Of Its Largest Employers Over Opioids

    The lawsuit alleges that Janssen Pharmaceuticals minimized the risk of opioids and targeted older patients who were less aware of the dangers of the drugs.

    The pharmaceutical industry is a major economic driver for the state of New Jersey, but that did not stop the state’s attorney general from launching a lawsuit against Janssen Pharmaceuticals, one of the state’s largest employers, over its marketing practices around opioids.

    “It is especially troubling that so much of the alleged misconduct took place right here in our own backyard,” New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said at a news conference, according to the New York Times. “New Jersey’s pharmaceutical industry is the envy of the world, with a long history of developing vital, lifesaving drugs. But we cannot turn a blind eye when a New Jersey company like Janssen violates our laws and threatens the lives of our residents.”

    The lawsuit alleges that Janssen minimized the risk of opioids, targeted older patients who were less aware of the dangers of the drugs, and made an effort to “embed its deceptions about the viability of long-term opioid use in the minds of doctors and patients.”

    The lawsuit focuses on the eight-year period that Janssen marketed two opioid products — Nucynta and Nucynta ER — before selling the rights to those medications for more than $1 billion in 2015. 

    Grewal said that the company intentionally fostered misinformation about those drugs. 

    “They funded bogus research,” he said. “They pushed bogus theories like pseudo-addiction, things that have been debunked. They positioned Nucynta and Nucynta ER as the safer alternative to other more powerful opioid drugs and, as the director mentioned, in fact, they were the same types of opioid drugs.”

    The lawsuit points out reportedly egregious prescribing practices, including one patient received 125 prescriptions for two opioids in just one year, totaling a 2,700-day supply of opioid pills. The doctor who wrote those prescriptions had taken hundreds of visits from Janssen representatives, the lawsuit said. 

    The pharmaceutical industry in New Jersey has shrunken slightly amid the opioid crisis, but still makes up about 8% of jobs in the state. However, Grewal said that did not factor into his decision over whether or not to pursue a lawsuit. 

    “We’re not shying away from holding folks accountable,” Mr. Grewal said. “If they’re culpable, we’ll hold them accountable.”

    This is the first time that New Jersey has taken legal action against a company based in the state, the New York Times reported. However, it’s not the first opioid-related lawsuit in the state. Former Governor Chris Christie’s administration launched legal action against Purdue Pharma and Insys Therapeutics, another opioid manufacturer. 

    View the original article at thefix.com