DEA Chief: Putting People In Prison Isn’t The Answer To Opioid Crisis
"I've been saying this ever since I was brand-new 25 years ago: we're not going to prosecute or enforce our way out of this mess," says Chuck Rosenberg, the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration has recruited coders to create an app to help people find naloxone in times of need, and recovery high schools are helping teenagers who are addicted to drugs graduate.
Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
DEA Head: Heroin Crisis Won't Be Solved Just By Throwing Addicts In Prison
The head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration says that the answer to the explosion of deaths attributed to heroin, fentanyl and other powerful opioids isn't as simple as locking the problem away in prison cells. Chuck Rosenberg, the former federal prosecutor who now heads the DEA, made the remark Monday while meeting with a small group of reporters in Cleveland, a city within a county that saw a record number of drug overdose deaths in August. (Ferrise, 9/19)
Columbus Dispatch:
As Heroin Wrecks Lives, Addicts’ Parents Fight Shame, Fear
Everyone has heard about how heroin abuse damages the spirit and ruins the physical health and mental functioning of those in its grip. But less talked about is how parents of an addict keep moving forward when their lives are in free fall. Or how they juggle the challenge of helping their child while not enabling the disease. (Pyle, 9/20)
Los Angeles Times:
FDA Asks Coders To Create An App That Matches Opioid Overdose Victims With Lifesaving Rescue Drug
In a bid to stanch the death toll of the nation’s epidemic of opioid drug use, the Food and Drug Administration is calling for the development of a cellphone app that could quickly bring lifesaving medication to the rescue of a person in the throes of a potentially deadly overdose. The FDA on Monday challenged computer programmers, public health advocates, clinical researchers and entrepreneurs to create an application that can connect opioid users and their friends and loved ones to someone nearby who has a dose of the prescription drug naloxone. (Healy, 9/19)
The Washington Post:
Overdosing On Heroin And Searching For Naloxone? The FDA Wants An App For That.
The last time the government launched a competition to solve a public health crisis, Americans were saved from salmonella in fresh produce.The winning scientists received $500,000. Now, the federal Food and Drug Administration is tackling a more deadly foe — the nationwide opioid crisis — and its calling on a different band of heroes for help. (Mettler, 9/19)
The Washington Post:
Opioid Epidemic Encourages States To Open Recovery High Schools
This summer, Melvin Matos did something that he once thought he would never do: graduate from high school. He’d started drinking at 14 and quickly moved on to pills and pot. By the time he turned 16, Matos could see where his life was heading: Some of his buddies already had died because of drugs and drink. After a stint in rehab, Matos enrolled at the William J. Ostiguy High School in Boston, one of five public “recovery high schools” in Massachusetts. There, in addition to his academic classes, he participated in group therapy and 12-step meetings, submitted to regular drug tests and formed friendships with kids facing struggles similar to his. (Wiltz, 9/19)
In other news on the opioid epidemic —
The Washington Post:
Federal Drug Testing Rules Race To Catch Up To Illegal Prescription Drugs
The federal drug-testing program had its beginnings one cloudy January afternoon when two men shared a joint. At the time, they were operating three 130-ton locomotives. A few minutes later, after blowing through a railroad signal light just north of Baltimore, they collided with an Amtrak train packed with passengers, many of them college students heading back to school after their winter break. Three Amtrak passenger cars were destroyed, 16 people died and 174 were injured. ... Twenty-five years later, the test remains the same, but illegal drug use has changed significantly. The 21st century has become the era of addiction to prescription painkillers — drugs with familiar brand names such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, Fentanyl and Valium. (Halsey, 9/19)
Columbus Dispatch:
Coroner Investigates Overdose Deaths To Help Save The Living
Coroner Anahi Ortiz wants to use clues from those deaths to save others' lives. And there's no area where she's making a bigger impact than in the heroin and opiate crisis, local officials say. Over the past 18 months, Dr. Ortiz, 58, has held monthly overdose death reviews with professionals countywide to look for gaps in the system. In March, she convened a summit of top minds to come up with solutions to the crisis. She also created a task force that over the next two years will implement a plan based on ideas from the summit. (Pyle, 9/20)
Stat:
As Profitable Fentanyl Industry Expands In China, US Negotiates To Halt The Deadly Trade
Top American and Chinese enforcement officials are negotiating how to fight the rampant trade in synthetic drugs manufactured here and blamed for a deadly wave of spiked opioids in the United States. A 14-member delegation from the US Drug Enforcement Agency, led by Deputy Chief of Operations Lizette Yrizarry, spent a week in China in August, meeting with Narcotics Control Bureau and Public Security Bureau officials, DEA officials said. (McLauglin, 9/20)
Denver Post:
Facing Surge In Opioid Abuse And Overdose Deaths, Colorado Distributes 2,500 Doses Of Narcan
Facing a surge in opioid abuse and related overdose deaths, Colorado authorities on Monday unveiled a plan to distribute the life-saving drug naloxone — known by its trade name, Narcan — to first responders across the state’s hardest hit areas...The initiative will send 2,500 dual-dose packages of the handheld opioid blocker to law enforcement and other first responders in 17 counties with high rates of drug overdose deaths. It comes at a time when officials say someone in Colorado dies of an overdose roughly every nine and a half hours and the rate of opioid deaths has surpassed that of traffic fatalities. (Paul, 9/19)
Kansas City Star:
Study: Opioid Use Down In States With Medical Marijuana
States that allow medical marijuana to be used to treat pain show a decline in the use of opioids, according to a new study. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, examined 69,000 traffic fatalities in 18 states from 1999 to 2013, focusing on differences between states that had legalized medical marijuana and those that had not. (Hotakainen, 9/19)
Kaiser Health News:
Kratom Defenders Fight Plan To Ban Herb Used By People In Recovery
Since 2014, Karisa Rowland has gotten up every morning, removed a bag of kratom powder from her fridge, stirred about a teaspoonful into a mug of water and drunk it.In the past, Rowland, who lives a half hour south of Fort Worth, Texas, struggled with a serious prescription opioid dependence. After several back surgeries, she was using pills — hydrocodone, fentanyl and oxycodone — to deal with her chronic pain. Her morning ritual with kratom has helped her handle her pain without taking opioid drugs, she said. (Silverman, 9/20)
