Different Takes: HB 2004 Will Stop Eviction Of Alzheimer’s Patients; Governance Needed In Brain Research

Kansas City Star: Patients In Kansas Assisted Living Facilities Can Be Evicted 
If you have loved ones in a Kansas assisted living facility, you need to know that they have no legal protection from being evicted without cause. The facility can appeal infractions, but the residents cannot. Involuntary discharge is the primary complaint received by the long-term care ombudsman at the Kansas Office of Public Advocates. Here is what happened to us several years ago. (Rachel Imthurn, 3/15)

Stat: Applied Neuroscience Needs A Governance Task Force 
In the United States alone, more than 100 million people are affected by at least one neurological disease. These conditions, which range from Alzheimer’s disease to depression and Parkinson’s disease, cost the health care system almost $800 billion per year. The toll is far higher if you add in the almost unquantifiable financial and emotional costs of diminished quality of life and caretaking. While the brain has historically been difficult to study directly, applied neuroscience is on the verge of transformative breakthroughs that could provide enormous benefits — as well as harms. (David Beier, Lucy Nalbach Tournas and Gary Marchant, 3/15)

CNN: What Happened When Smoking Was Banned In American Indian Casinos 
It took more than a decade to achieve. But anyone who cares about health in Indian country will gladly take the win. American Indian tribes are joining the effort across the nation to ban smoking in casinos, permanently, in the case of the Navajo Nation, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and others. This development may have once seemed unthinkable in communities where consuming tobacco is both a sacred ritual and a heavily entrenched public-health burden. But it's happening. It is a striking reversal given that the tobacco industry has pushed its toxic products on American Indian lands for a century or more, and the gambling industry has argued against smoking bans since Indian casinos first emerged in the 1980s. (Patricia Nez Henderson and Catherine Saucedo, 3/12)

Dallas Morning News: Changing The Perception Of Prescriptions
Illicit drug use has never been so perilous. More than 100,000 Americans succumbed to drug overdoses in the last 12 months, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, largely due to the emergence of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid nearly 50 times stronger than heroin. Fentanyl has taken over the drug trade; it has been found in cocaine, heroin, marijuana and counterfeit pills, and it is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 — more than car accidents, COVID-19 or suicide. (Jim Crotty, 3/15)

Stat: Commissioner Califf Needs To Put The F Back In FDA 
Robert Califf is taking the reins as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration with the nation in a nutrition crisis. Americans are living shorter, less-healthy lives due to the foods they are being sold. The new commissioner can meet this challenge by harnessing the FDA’s effective but underused food-related regulatory powers, which were created with FDA itself for a similar food crisis more than 100 years ago. (Bill Frist, Jerome M. Adams and Jerold Mande, 3/14)

Newsweek: Providing Medical Care For Women And Girls Can Change The World 
We have witnessed incredible displays of unity and progress so far this year. We banded together to put a stop to a global pandemic, created rockets to transport everyday people into space and leveraged AI and VR to revolutionize everything from how we shop to how we treat disease. And despite all these advancements, we have not been able to keep up when it comes to health care for women and girls, who are often left behind even as, societally, we move forward. (Doris Macharia, 3/14)

The CT Mirror: Use Evidence-Based Models To Allocate Opioid Suit Proceeds
As a result of a lawsuit against Johnson and Johnson, AmerisourceBergen Corp., Cardinal Health, and McKesson Corp, Connecticut will receive over $300 million. Recently, I submitted testimony in support of HB 5044, an act implementing the governor’s budget recommendations regarding the use of opioid litigation proceeds. I appreciate the many leaders who have tenaciously fought to contain the opioid epidemic that has plagued our state and who have worked tirelessly to form this bill. In addition, I am grateful for the fight against big pharmaceuticals and the litigation proceeds that will bring much-needed funds for prevention, treatment, and recovery to our state. But sadly, the outcome of this litigation is not a victory. (Dita Bhargava, 3/15)