(Reuters Health) – A growing number of Americans are needing intensive care for opioid overdoses and dying after receiving treatment for serious complications, a U.S. study suggests.
Opioid-related overdose deaths have doubled since 2000 amid a worsening epidemic of addiction to both prescription painkillers like oxycodone and illegal drugs like heroin, researchers note in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
From the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Teens
by Sarah Bellum
More and more young people are using heroin these days, and sometimes they start using it because they’ve gotten addicted to prescription painkillers.
One study showed that people who abuse painkillers like OxyContin are 19 times more likely to start using heroin. The study also found that 8 out of 10 people who started using heroin abused painkillers first.
In New Jersey, Governor Christie recently signed a law that…requires prescribers to discuss the risks of opioid dependence with their patients prior to the first prescription. We urge national implementation.
The Prevent Opiod Abuse Team.
Gov. Gina Raimondo is slated to sign several pieces of legislation Monday, aimed at curbing the opioid crisis.
The ceremonial signing includes bills to require health professionals to discuss the risk of addiction before they prescribe opioids to patients and stricter penalties for distributing fentanyl.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis asked him Monday to declare a national emergency to deal with the epidemic.
The members of the bipartisan panel called the request their “first and most urgent recommendation.”
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Gov. Gina Raimondo has signed three bills into law aimed at combating Rhode Island’s opioid epidemic.
The legislation allows law enforcement access to an electronic database of prescription painkillers without a warrant; requires health care professionals to discuss the risks of addiction with patients when writing opioid prescriptions; and expands the type of pharmaceuticals that can be prescribed using electronic prescriptions, while ensuring patient privacy.
From Consumer Reports:
By Teresa Carr
A report out today from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that use of these highly addictive narcotic pain meds dropped in the last few years. But a closer look at the numbers in the CDC study reveals another, more troubling trend: Some doctors are still overprescribing opioids, which puts lives at risk.
STATE HOUSE — The Senate has passed legislation introduced by Sen. Stephen R. Archambault (D-Dist. 22, Smithfield, North Providence, Johnston) that would require health care professionals to discuss the dangers of opioid addiction before prescribing the medication.
“We’re battling a lethal epidemic that is killing more people a year than motor vehicle crashes,” said Senator Archambault. “More than 52,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2015 — and 63 percent of those deaths involved an opioid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
The legislation (2017-S 0493A) would require that a health care professional authorized to issue prescriptions, prior to issuing an initial prescription for an opioid drug, discuss with the patient who is 18 years of age or older or the patient’s parent or guardian if the patient is under 18, specifically the risks of developing a dependence or addiction on the prescription opioid drug and potential of overdose or death, the adverse risks of concurrent use of alcohol or other psychoactive medications.
OpEd by Elaine Pozycki:
New Jersey is now on the right path to combat opiate addiction. A recently adopted comprehensive law incorporates most of the major common-sense measures that Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey, addiction experts and impact families have long advocated. Taken together, these measures give New Jersey among the strongest – if not the strongest – set of opiate prevention laws of any state in the nation.