Harvard Says It Will Keep Sackler Name On Campus Buildings Despite Protests
The decision runs counter to several other institutions who have removed the name, including Tufts University and the Louvre in Paris. In other news: An employee who died at a California prison may have been exposed to fentanyl while opening mail.
AP:
Harvard Rebuffs Protests And Won't Remove Sackler Name From Two Buildings
Harvard University has decided against removing from campus buildings the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin, despite protests from parents whose children fatally overdosed. The decision last month by the Harvard Corporation to retain Arthur M. Sackler’s name on a museum building and second building runs counter to the trend among several institutions around the world that have removed the Sackler name in recent years. (Casey, 8/9)
AP:
Worker's Death At California Federal Prison Investigated For Possible Fentanyl Exposure, AP Learns
A worker at a federal prison in California has died and investigators are examining whether he was exposed to fentanyl shortly before his death, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Marc Fischer, a mailroom supervisor at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California, died Friday after he reported feeling ill earlier, the people said. They said he was taken to a local hospital and was pronounced dead later in the evening. Investigators are examining whether he was exposed to a substance authorities believe was fentanyl while he screening mail at the prison, the people said. (Balsamo and Sisak, 8/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
Medicare’s Opioid Limits Didn’t Protect This Doctor’s Patients From Deadly Overdoses
Many who have died of overdoses in this retirement haven in recent years have a common thread. They were Medicare patients of Dr. Ricky Lockett, a local pain specialist. Lockett is one of the nation’s most prolific prescribers of opioid painkillers to elderly or disabled people covered by the federal program, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare data. At least 21 of his Medicare patients died of drug overdoses between 2017 and 2021, the highest number for any doctor in the U.S., the analysis showed. Scores more survived overdoses. Some of them mixed prescription and street drugs. ... Lockett said he knows he is an unusually heavy opioid prescriber. He attributed that to his population of patients, mostly on Medicare, who often come to him with longstanding pain and disability issues, and to his practice’s focus on medication-based pain management. (Maremont, Weaver, McGinty and Mathews, 8/10)
The Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore Reaches $45 Million Settlement With CVS In Opioid Lawsuit
Baltimore has reached a $45 million settlement with CVS, ending another piece of the city’s ongoing lawsuit against major American drug companies and distributors accused of contributing to the opioid crisis. Mayor Brandon M. Scott announced the settlement, which ends the city’s claims against CVS, in a news release late Friday. So far, the city has won $90 million from opioid companies it is suing, including another $45 million Baltimore received from a settlement with the drugmaker Allergan. (O'Neill, 8/9)
Carolina Public Press:
From Addiction To Peer Support. How Those Who Recover Show Others A Path Forward In NC.
Thirty-three years ago, doctors prescribed opioids for Julie McAllister to help her recover from a partial hysterectomy. She spent the next 26 years of her life in an all-consuming addiction. Her ex-husband and two adult children fell into addiction alongside her. Both of her children suffered multiple overdoses. (Sartwell, 8/11)
Deseret News:
The Rural Utah Community At The Crossroads Of The Fentanyl Epidemic
The highway headed into Price, Utah, has more roadkill on it than moving cars. Through the windy canyons, there is an abandoned, sunken ghost town and periods of time without cellphone reception. Highway 6 may seem out-of-sight and out-of-mind to northern city slickers, but it is one of the routes drug traffickers take to distribute fentanyl and heroin to dealers across the state. Price, in the heart of Utah’s Carbon County, is at the crossroads of a growing, deadly drug problem in Utah. (Seariac, 8/10)
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