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Tag: overdose deaths

  • Chicago May Begin Prosecuting Dealers For Overdose Deaths

    Chicago May Begin Prosecuting Dealers For Overdose Deaths

    The Chicago Police Department plans to create a task force to investigate drug deaths and prosecute dealers under the state’s drug-induced homicide law. 

    When someone dies of an overdose, is it their own responsibility, or should the person who provided the drugs be held criminally liable? 

    That’s the question that law enforcement and prosecutors around the country have been asking, and in Chicago the answer is beginning to change. Although the Chicago Police Department has not investigated drug deaths as homicides in the past, it is beginning to do so, according to CBS. 

    “It’s becoming an epidemic, so we need to do what we can to reduce that,” said Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. 

    The Chicago Police Department now has plans to create a task force to investigate drug-related deaths and prosecute dealers under the state’s drug-induced homicide law.

    The Chicago Police Department has been inspired in part by the success of prosecuting drug dealers in nearby McHenry County. There, police and prosecutors target dealers in overdose deaths. 

    “Every single overdose case that happens in McHenry County, we assign a lawyer to work with police,” said McHenry County State’s Attorney, Patrick Kenneally. His office has prosecuted about 20 drug-induced homicide cases in the past three years, including 8 in 2017, when there were 80 overdose deaths in the county. The next year there were 51 overdoses, and 15 prosecutions for drug-induced homicide. 

    “This, we truly believe, is tangibly resulting in lives being saved,” Kenneally said. 

    In Chicago, only one overdose case has resulted in prosecution in the past four years. The victim in the case was the 18-year-old stepdaughter of Theresa Almanza, a police officer.

    Despite Almanza’s law enforcement experience, she was told that the city would do nothing to prosecute the people who provided her stepdaughter with drugs. 

    Almanza said, “The Chicago police department told me they don’t investigate these cases criminally. That Sydney made a choice and they weren’t going to investigate it.”

    The department said that the cases were difficult to prove, costly and time-consuming. However, Almanza didn’t give up, and eventually Brent Tyssen and Cynthia Parker were charged in connection with Sydney’s death.

    Tyssen was sentenced to six years in jail, while Parker was placed on probation. Almanza hopes that sentences like these will deter people from selling drugs, and help stem overdose deaths. 

    Now others, including police superintendent Johnson, are willing to give the strategy a try. 

    Johnson said, “I’m confident we’ll be able to model what they have out in McHenry County. Our children, their lives matter too, and these cases must be investigated criminally.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Deaths From Alcohol, Suicide & Overdose Reach Record High

    Deaths From Alcohol, Suicide & Overdose Reach Record High

    Suicide, drug overdose and alcohol now kill more than 150,000 Americans annually. 

    Deaths from suicide, drug overdose and alcohol have reached an all-time high in the United States. 

    Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed by two non-profit organizations revealed that deaths attributed to those causes rose 6% in 2017, USA Today reported.

    Those factors are now responsible for 46.6 deaths per 100,000—killing more than 150,000 people each year, according to U.S. News and World Report.

    In 2017, deaths from suicide rose 4%, double the pace of increase over the past decade. Deaths caused by synthetic opioids also skyrocketed, up 45%. However, five states saw decreases in deaths from suicide, overdose and alcohol. Those were Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah and Wyoming.

    Loribeth Bowman Stein, of Milford, Connecticut, believes that social isolation is contributing to these co-called diseases of despair.

    She said, “We don’t really see each other anymore. We don’t share our hopes and joys in the same way, and we aren’t as available to one another, physically and emotionally, as we need to be. The world got smaller, but lonelier.”

    Kimberly McDonald, a licensed clinical social worker in Wisconsin lost her father to suicide, and says that she sees patients struggling with suicidal ideation and addiction every day. Often, they don’t get the support that they need to heal. 

    “We are a society that criticizes and lacks compassion, integrity, and empathy. I work daily with individuals who each have their own demons,” she said. 

    However, Benjamin Miller, a psychologist and chief strategy officer at the Well Being Trust, said that people need to avoid the temptation to explain away these alarming statistics. 

    He said, “It’s almost a joke how simple we’re trying to make these issues. We’re not changing direction, and it’s getting worse.”

    The Well Being Trust calls for policy changes, such as restricting access to firearms and medications that can be deadly for someone looking to end their life. In addition, the trust calls for more funding for programs that support resiliency in kids, address childhood trauma, and provide treatment for addiction.

    All of these efforts, Miller said, can help save lives. Progress has been made in these areas, but there is need for more work, Miller said. 

    “It is important to see hope in the slowing of rates—but it’s not nearly enough. We should not be satisfied at all. Too many of us are dying from preventable causes.”

    Overall, the suicide rate has increased 33% since 1999. Rural states including West Virginia, New Mexico, Ohio, Alaska and New Hampshire have the highest suicide rates. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Epidemic Will Get Worse, Researchers Say

    Opioid Epidemic Will Get Worse, Researchers Say

    Using computer modeling, researchers predicted that overdose deaths will kill 81 ,700 people in 2025 unless drastic changes are made.

    Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital have grim news about the opioid epidemic: It’s likely to continue worsening in the coming years, unless widespread, drastic policy changes are taken to address illicit drug use. 

    The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, showed that even with efforts to more tightly control access to prescription opioids, overdose deaths will continue to rise.

    Using computer modeling, researchers predicted that overdose deaths will kill 81 ,700 people in 2025, most of whom will die from illicit opioids. Further restricting access to prescription opioids will only reduce that number by 3%-5.3%, researchers found. 

    “This study demonstrates that initiatives focused on the prescription opioid supply are insufficient to bend the curve of opioid overdose deaths in the short and medium term,” Dr. Marc Larochelle of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center said in a press release. “We need policy, public health and health care delivery efforts to amplify harm reduction efforts and access to evidence-based treatment.”

    Jagpreet Chhatwal, who co-authored the paper with Larochelle and others, said that more drastic measures are needed to target the use of illicit opioids. 

    “If we rely solely on controlling the supply of prescription opioids, we will fail miserably at stemming the opioid overdose crisis. Illicit opioids now cause the majority of overdose deaths, and such deaths are predicted to increase by 260%—from 19,000 to 68,000—between 2015 and 2025,” said Chhatwal. “A multi-pronged approach—including strategies to identify those with opioid use disorder, improved access to medications like methadone and buprenorphine, and expansion of harm reduction services such as the overdose-reversal drug naloxone—will be required to reduce the rate of opioid overdose deaths.” 

    Chhatwal said that while easy access to prescription opioids may have contributed to the crisis, today the epidemic is more about illicit opioids including fentanyl and its analogues. Because of this, efforts to reduce overdose deaths need to focus on addressing the population of people who are using illegal drugs. 

    “The opioid epidemic started with a sharp increase in opioid prescriptions for pain in the 1990s; but since 2010 the crisis has shifted, with a leveling off of deaths due to prescription opioid overdoses and an increase in overdose deaths due to heroin,” he said.

    “In the past five years, deaths have accelerated with the introduction of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl into the opioid supply, leading to a continuing increase in overdose deaths at time when the supply of prescription opioids is decreasing.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Who Should Be Held Responsible For The Opioid Epidemic?

    Who Should Be Held Responsible For The Opioid Epidemic?

    A new op-ed suggests that to receive “true justice” for the opioid epidemic, “we need to root out all the villains regardless of whether they have famous names.”

    When it comes to the opioid epidemic, no name brings frustration and anger like Purdue Pharma. It is commonly accepted that the maker of OxyContin contributed to the growth of the opioid epidemic by using aggressive and misleading sales tactics meant to get more powerful opioids into the hands of more Americans. 

    The Sackler family, members of which founded the company that would become Purdue Pharma, have also come under fire for their perceived role in the epidemic. Not only did the family profit vastly from the sale of OxyContin, but new court documents assert that they were directly involved with pushing for more sales.

    When it became clear that OxyContin was addictive they even considered making medications to assist in the treatment of addiction, which would have allowed them to double dip, profiting from both ends of the crisis. 

    The actions of Purdue Pharma were reprehensible, Robert Gebelhoff writes in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. However, he argues that in addition to punishing them, the country needs to seek punishment and retribution for others who contributed to the crisis.

    “The opioid epidemic is one of the worst systematic failures of health care in our country. For true justice, we need to root out all the villains, regardless of whether they have famous names,” he writes. 

    Gebelhoff calls for holding the medical community and other accountable. 

    He writes, “Even if states are able to turn these latest charges into some form of punishment for the Sacklers themselves, what about all those who promoted their cause? What about the researchers who accepted funding from drug manufacturers and carried out campaigns to destigmatize opioid painkillers? What about the officials at the Food and Drug Administration who not only approved OxyContin without any clinical studies on how addictive the drug might be, but also approved a package insert declaring the drug safer than its rival painkillers?”

    He also points to government officials who failed to intervene in the crisis, and even made it more difficult for the Drug Enforcement Administration to pursue concerning opioid sales.

    At the same time, government policy made it difficult for people to access medication-assisted treatment, which is widely accepted as the best treatment for opioid use disorder. This pattern continues today, according to recent VA research that shows too few people are getting access to medication-assisted treatment. 

    “Who holds such practitioners accountable?” Gebelhoff asks. 

    Gebelhoff points out that the Sacklers and Purdue are a good target, because they have enough money to help fund access to treatment and other interventions into the epidemic. However, he says it’s important that other entities be held responsible even if they don’t have deep pockets. 

    “The opioid saga — stemming from prescription painkillers — has irreparably damaged the lives of countless Americans over the past few decades,” he writes. “Don’t they deserve better?”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Epidemic Will Get Worse, Researchers Says

    Opioid Epidemic Will Get Worse, Researchers Says

    Using computer modeling, researchers predicted that overdose deaths will kill 81 ,700 people in 2025 unless drastic changes are made.

    Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital have grim news about the opioid epidemic: It’s likely to continue worsening in the coming years, unless widespread, drastic policy changes are taken to address illicit drug use. 

    The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, showed that even with efforts to more tightly control access to prescription opioids, overdose deaths will continue to rise.

    Using computer modeling, researchers predicted that overdose deaths will kill 81 ,700 people in 2025, most of whom will die from illicit opioids. Further restricting access to prescription opioids will only reduce that number by 3%-5.3%, researchers found. 

    “This study demonstrates that initiatives focused on the prescription opioid supply are insufficient to bend the curve of opioid overdose deaths in the short and medium term,” Dr. Marc Larochelle of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center said in a press release. “We need policy, public health and health care delivery efforts to amplify harm reduction efforts and access to evidence-based treatment.”

    Jagpreet Chhatwal, who co-authored the paper with Larochelle and others, said that more drastic measures are needed to target the use of illicit opioids. 

    “If we rely solely on controlling the supply of prescription opioids, we will fail miserably at stemming the opioid overdose crisis. Illicit opioids now cause the majority of overdose deaths, and such deaths are predicted to increase by 260%—from 19,000 to 68,000—between 2015 and 2025,” said Chhatwal. “A multi-pronged approach—including strategies to identify those with opioid use disorder, improved access to medications like methadone and buprenorphine, and expansion of harm reduction services such as the overdose-reversal drug naloxone—will be required to reduce the rate of opioid overdose deaths.” 

    Chhatwal said that while easy access to prescription opioids may have contributed to the crisis, today the epidemic is more about illicit opioids including fentanyl and its analogues. Because of this, efforts to reduce overdose deaths need to focus on addressing the population of people who are using illegal drugs. 

    “The opioid epidemic started with a sharp increase in opioid prescriptions for pain in the 1990s; but since 2010 the crisis has shifted, with a leveling off of deaths due to prescription opioid overdoses and an increase in overdose deaths due to heroin,” he said.

    “In the past five years, deaths have accelerated with the introduction of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl into the opioid supply, leading to a continuing increase in overdose deaths at time when the supply of prescription opioids is decreasing.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Anti-Diarrhea Medication Abuse Continues To Skyrocket

    Anti-Diarrhea Medication Abuse Continues To Skyrocket

    Cases of loperamide exposure are up 90% over a five-year period.

    People who are trying to avoid opioid withdrawals or get a high are more frequently turning to an over-the-counter diarrhea medication, leading to an increase in overdoses from the drug. 

    Researchers from Rutgers University found that overdoses from loperamide—known as “the poor man’s methadone” and sold under the brand name Imodium AD—increased steeply between 2011 and 2016, although they remained very rare, with only 26 cases reported, according to the study published in the journal Clinical Toxicology. At the same time, calls to poison control about the drug rose more than 90%.

    Despite the relatively low numbers, the trend caused alarm for people who see loperamide as an opioid that is easy to access and hard to detect in drug tests.

    Diane Calello, executive and medical director of the New Jersey Poison Control Center at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and lead study author, said in a news release that loperamide is safe when taken as instructed.

    However, some opioid users take up to 50 times the recommended dosage, at which point the drug becomes very dangerous.  

    “When used appropriately, loperamide is a safe and effective treatment for diarrhea—but when misused in large doses, it is more toxic to the heart than other opioids which are classified under federal policy as controlled dangerous substances,” she said. “Overdose deaths occur not because patients stop breathing, as with other opioids, but due to irregular heartbeat and cardiac arrest.”

    Calello said that over the past years there have been multiple deaths related to loperamide in New Jersey. Because of this, Calello and others recommend that there be changes to the way that loperamide is sold, as well as more public awareness about the risks of the drug. 

    She said, “Possible ways of restricting loperamide misuse include limiting the daily or monthly amount an individual could purchase, requiring retailers to keep personal information about customers, requiring photo identification for purchase and placing medication behind the counter. Most importantly, consumers need to understand the very real danger of taking this medication in excessive doses.”

    In May 2018, the Food and Drug Administration announced changes to the way that loperamide is packaged and sold. FDA head Scott Gottlieb requested that online retailers stop selling large quantities of the drug, and that it be packaged in blister packs, which require users to individually open each pill. These requirements could curb misuse, while also keeping the drug available to people with digestive issues who need it regularly. 

    “We’re very mindful of balancing benefit and risk and the needs of patients in our mission to promote and protect public health,” Gottlieb wrote.

    “The FDA’s actions to address drug misuse and abuse must be informed by an understanding of the complex social environment in which changing patterns of drug consumption occur. The agency is committed to addressing emerging issues of abuse and misuse while taking steps to safeguard the needs of patients who depend on these medicines.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    Benzo Death Rates Among Women Skyrocket

    A new report also shows the number of benzodiazepine prescriptions has sharply risen over an 18-year timeframe.

    New statistics suggest that the overdose death rates involving the prescription drugs known as benzodiazepines have risen dramatically over the past decade, and approach statistics for heroin – and synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths.

    A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that between 1999 and 2017, the number of women between the ages of 30 and 64 who died from an drug overdose involving benzodiazepines – a family of drugs used for anxiety – rose 830% during that time period.

    The CDC also found that prescriptions for benzodiazepines rose by 67% during the approximate same time period.

    Benzodiazepines, which include such medications as Xanax, Valium and Klonopin, can prove effective in treating conditions like anxiety or insomnia if taken on an intermittent basis over a period of a few weeks. But with long-term use, they also carry an increased risk for overdose if taken with opioids.

    Their ability to calm or sedate the user through an increase in the neurotransmitter GABA in the brain, which can be dangerous if taken with drugs that slow breathing like opioids or even alcohol. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reported in 2018 that 30% of opioid-related overdoses also involved benzodiazepines.

    The overall impact of benzodiazepine on overdose mortality rates paints a more alarming picture when observed over the time period covered in the CDC’s report. According to their research, overdose deaths involving benzodiazepines among women in the aforementioned target age group rose from 0.54 per 100,000 in 1997 to 5.02 per 100,000 in 2017 – a jump of 830%. 

    The number of benzodiazepine prescriptions also saw a startling increase during the study time frame, rising from 8.1 million adults in the United States who filled a prescription for the medication in 1996 to 13.5 million in 2013.

    Prescriptions began to drop or level off after 2013, but overdose deaths maintained their steady climb: in 2016 alone, there were 10,685 overdose deaths attributed to the drug, while in 1999, the US total as just 1,135.

    Commentary in the February 2018 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that education about the dangers of the drug and alternatives should be paired with national efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

    Informing doctors and patients alike about their dangers, and the effectiveness of alternative treatments for anxiety and insomnia, could help to bring the numbers reported by the CDC down.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Charging Heroin Dealers With Homicide A Common Practice In Pennsylvania

    Charging Heroin Dealers With Homicide A Common Practice In Pennsylvania

    Pennsylvania leads the nation with more than 500 drug-induced homicide charges filed.

    In Lancaster County, deep in the heart of Amish country, authorities have gone after more drug-induced homicide charges than any other place in the nation, according to figures from Mission LISA, a data aggregation project.

    Last year alone, prosecutors in the southeast Pennsylvania county filed roughly 60 such charges, more than the 37 in nearby Bucks County or the 35 in York County. Four of the most prosecution-prone counties were in the Keystone State, which led the nation with more than 500 drug-induced homicide charges filed.

    It’s a controversial practice, often condemned by harm reduction advocates. But Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman swears the charge—levied against dealers who sell fatal doses of the drug—is working. 

    “I don’t think this is a magic bullet that’s going to end the opioid crisis, but is it part of the solution?” he told WITF. “I’m absolutely convinced it is, and there’s just something about being held accountable.”

    By way of example, Stedman highlighted an interaction with one man accused of selling drugs. “One guy in particular, they arrest him, he’s a long-time heroin dealer, and he was arrested for cocaine. They said, what are you doing? You’re a long-time heroin dealer. And he said, look, message received. I’m not catching a body in Lancaster County.” 

    But advocates decry the practice, as Drug Policy Alliance attorney Lindsay LaSalle explained to the PA Post in 2018.

    “We see this kind of flip,” she said, “where you have the compassion for the person who used but you want to throw the hammer at the person who sold. And this is an absolutely false dichotomy. The distinction between user and seller is often patently false.”

    The high numbers in Lancaster County come amid a long-term increase in drug-related homicide charges, according to the Mission LISA data.

    Going all the way back to 1975, the organization’s data set accounts for 2,741 drug-induced homicide charges—but the figures show a sharp uptick starting around 2010. In that year, there were 67 such charges filed across the nation; by 2015 that figure rose to 300.

    In 2016, it peaked at just over 660, though since then has fallen to under 400.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Mass Overdose In California Leaves One Dead, 12 Hospitalized

    Mass Overdose In California Leaves One Dead, 12 Hospitalized

    “Every indication is that this mass overdose incident was caused from the ingestion of some form of fentanyl in combination with another substance,” said a police chief at the scene.

    The synthetic opioid fentanyl is most likely responsible for a cluster of overdoses in one Chico, California house. One person died after overdosing and four are in critical condition; a total of 12 people were taken to the hospital. 

    According to NPR, Chico police are fairly sure the mass overdose was caused by the use of fentanyl, in combination with another substance.

    “Every indication is that this mass overdose incident was caused from the ingestion of some form of fentanyl in combination with another substance. That is yet to be confirmed, but we do anticipate confirmation in the coming days,” Chico Police Chief Michael O’Brien said.

    According to Anna Lembke, MD, fentanyl (a synthetic opioid pain reliever) can be 50 to 100 times more potent than heroin. Lembke gives this chilling example: “If you ingest a ‘bag of heroin,’ which is typically 100 mg of heroin, and that bag contains 20% pure fentanyl in place of heroin, you will be ingesting the rough equivalent of 2,000 mg of heroin, enough to kill even a highly tolerant user.”

    Chico Fire Department Division Chief Jesse Alexander said it was the largest mass casualty incident he had seen in years, with six people receiving CPR simultaneously.

    Chief O’Brien reported on the crime scene. “Upon arrival, Chico police officers found multiple individuals in what appeared to be life-threatening, overdose conditions. . . . Officers began to both administer CPR and also naloxone to those individuals. . . . Unfortunately one male individual was pronounced dead at the scene.”

    Chico officers began carrying naloxone on their person one year ago, according to CNN, and in this case lives were saved with the opioid-reversing drug. Police Chief O’Brien reported that officers administered CPR and six doses of naloxone.

    After working the crime scene, two officers reported feeling fentanyl-like symptoms from possible exposure and were treated and later released from a local hospital.

    The Chico Enterprise-Record reported that all of the people hospitalized were over the age of 18, with most of them appearing to be in their 20s. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that in 2017 there were more than 72,000 drug overdose deaths, with the sharpest increase seen among deaths related to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids) for a staggering total of nearly 30,000 overdose deaths. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Opioid Overdose Deaths Surpass Vehicle Crash Deaths For First Time

    Opioid Overdose Deaths Surpass Vehicle Crash Deaths For First Time

    According to a new report from the National Safety Council, Americans are more likely to die from an opioid overdoses than a car crash.

    An opioid overdose is now a more likely cause of death than even vehicle crashes, according to a recent report. 

    The report on preventable deaths from the National Safety Council found that Americans have a 1 in 96 chance of death due to an opioid overdose, based on 2017 accidental death data. 

    “Drug poisoning is now the No. 1 cause of unintentional death in the United States,” the report reads. “Every day, more than 100 people die from opioid drugs –  37,814 people every year – and many of these overdoses are from prescription opioid medicine.”

    In comparison, NPR states, the chance of death in a motor vehicle crash is 1 in 103. 

    “We’ve made significant strides in overall longevity in the United States, but we are dying from things typically called accidents at rates we haven’t seen in half a century,” Ken Kolosh, manager of statistics at the National Safety Council, said, according to PR Newswire. “We cannot be complacent about 466 lives lost every day. This new analysis reinforces that we must consistently prioritize safety at work, at home and on the road to prevent these dire outcomes.”

    According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the drug at the forefront of overdose deaths is now fentanyl, which the council addressed in a statement. 

    “The nation’s opioid crisis is fueling the Council’s grim probabilities, and that crisis is worsening with an influx of illicit fentanyl,” the statement read. 

    Causes of death such as motor vehicle crashes and overdoses are different from heart disease and cancer deaths in that they are considered “a preventable, unintentional injury” — a statistic that has increased in the last 15 years, according to NPR. Falls also top the list of preventable causes of death, at 1 in 114, compared to 1 in 119 a year ago. 

    “It is impacting our workforce, it is impacting our fathers and mothers who are still raising their children,” Kolosh said. 

    He added that such deaths often impact people in the “core of their life.”

    “As human beings, we’re terrible at assessing our own risk,” Kolosh said. “We typically focus on the unusual or scary events … and assume that those are the riskiest.”

    Though everyone will die at some point, Kolosh says, action can still be taken to prevent unnecessary deaths. 

    “Your odds of dying are 1 in 1,” Kolosh added. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t do something. If, as a society, we put the appropriate rules and regulations in place we can prevent all accidental deaths in the future.”

    View the original article at thefix.com