Free Gyms Help Those Recovering From Addiction Create Drug-Free Social Network
In the midst of the opioid epidemic, new strategies of coping with the crisis are emerging as advocates recognize the need for a multi-pronged recovery plan. In other news: homeless outreach teams take the fight to the streets; a new product allows users to test their drugs for deadly contaminants; California lawmakers target prescriptions practices with potential database requirements; and more.
The Wall Street Journal:
Koch-Funded Gyms Help Opioid Addicts Recover
Emily Brawn stumbled as she attempted to kick opioids a few years ago. When she wasn’t at 12-step meetings, she grew isolated. “Days and days in your own head,” she said. “That is where the relapse starts.” She is trying a new strategy. In early September, 90 days sober, the 29-year-old stepped into a gym in an industrial corner of Boston. Muscled people were warming up for CrossFit, surrounded by top-line equipment and a rock-climbing wall. (Levitz, 9/16)
Stat:
Addiction Doctors Try To Bring Care To Patients, Rather Than Vice Versa
The San Francisco program, run by the city’s public health department, is one of a handful of novel programs around the country that are taking the unusual step of delivering comprehensive treatment to people with addiction — wherever they are. These programs aim to help patients who can’t or won’t jump through the hoops of health care bureaucracy — appointments, referrals, paperwork, even obtaining a photo ID. It is one of the rare policy ideas that is giving health officials hope for reducing overdose deaths, even as Congress nibbles around the edges of the crisis and the Trump administration grows increasingly hostile to some harm-reduction initiatives. (Facher, 9/17)
The Associated Press:
To Avoid Overdoses, Some Test Their Heroin Before Taking It
The newest tool in the fight against opioid overdoses is an inexpensive test strip that can help heroin users detect a potentially deadly contaminant in their drugs. Sales of fentanyl test strips have exploded as a growing number of overdose-prevention programs hand them out to people who use illicit drugs. (9/17)
Los Angeles Times:
As Opioid Death Toll Worsens, California Doctors Will Soon Be Required To Perform Database Checks
By the time the 59-year-old woman overdosed in the late summer of 2013, she’d been given 75 prescriptions by three primary care doctors, a psychiatrist and a pain specialist in one year. Her deadly cocktail: an opioid painkiller, a sleeping aid and anti-anxiety medication. Had any of the five physicians treating her been aware she’d been “shopping” around for prescriptions? Had they warned her of the dangerous combinations? Had anyone tried to intervene? (Davis, 9/16)
The CT Mirror:
Congress Moves Towards Approval Of Massive Anti-Opioid Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation earlier this year aimed at combating opioid addiction, which has become an epidemic in Connecticut and most other states. But the legislation stalled in the Senate because Democrats objected to a provision they said would solely benefit a powerful advocacy group with deep ties to the pharmaceutical industry. (Radelat, 9/14)
The CT Mirror:
Doctors Slow To Adopt Medication-Assisted Therapy For Opioid Treatment
Research shows that medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction is effective because it eliminates drug cravings, but the use of MAT in Connecticut is not keeping up with the epidemic, said Dr. David Fiellin, director of the Yale Program in Addiction Medicine, who works with the state to address the opioid crisis. (McCarthy, 9/16)
Kaiser Health News:
Half As Many People Are Trying Heroin, But Marijuana Use Grows
Some good news from the front lines of the heroin crisis: Half as many people tried heroin for the first time in 2017 as in 2016. That’s according to data released Friday from the government’s annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “This is what we were hoping for,” said Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, who directs the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “It tells us that we are getting the word out to the American people of the risks of heroin,” especially when the drug is tainted with additional powerful opioids, fentanyl or carfentanil. (Gold, 9/14)
Cincinnati Enquirer:
New Heroin Use Dips In 2017 While Meth Use Among Young Adults Jumps
Far fewer people older than 25 started using heroin last year, but the decline among young adults was almost imperceptible, and the 18- to 25-year-old age group also saw a big jump in meth, a new federal report shows. The 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released Friday, emphasizes the “transitional aged youth” because they are more likely than anyone else to use cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and LSD. (DeMio, 9/14)
Philadelphia Inquirer:
In South Philly, A Long-Hidden Heroin Crisis Can’t Be Ignored Anymore
While the opioid crisis is most acute by far in Kensington, overdose deaths in South Philly increased by 41 percent from 2016 to 2017. All told, 132 of the city's 1,217 overdose deaths last year were in the community. (Whelan, 9/14)
