Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I'm Tired Of Losing My Patients': Medical Society Approves Safe Injection Site Pilot Program
WBUR: As Opioid Epidemic Rages On, Massachusetts Medical Society Backs Supervised Injection Rooms
The Massachusetts Medical Society, representing 25,000 physicians and medical students, says it's time to try a new tool to stop overdose deaths: rooms where drug users would inject heroin or other drugs under medical supervision. The society's House of Delegates approved a pilot project of supervised injection facilities (SIFs) during the group's annual meeting Saturday..."I'm tired of losing my patients," said Dr. Mark Eisenberg, a primary care physician. (Bebinger, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Opioid Epidemic Takes Its Toll On Camden
Police in Camden, N.J., are fielding more calls for overdoses than for homicides this year. Fatal opioid overdoses this year in the city of about 76,000 had surged to 35 as of Friday afternoon compared with 10 at the same point in 2016, and will likely eclipse last year’s 12-month total of 40 deaths within weeks, according to Police Chief J. Scott Thomson. “The pace is really alarming,” he said. (King and Kanno-Youngs, 4/29)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio's Spending On Opioid Addiction Treatment Drugs Vivitrol And Suboxone Spikes, Spurs Debate On What Treatments Work
Judges, doctors and lawmakers on the front lines of the opioid addiction crisis have a problem: Three types of medications are available to help the estimated 200,000 Ohioans struggling to recover from addiction and yet there are no clear answers as to which, if any, drug works best. (Dissell, 4/30)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: As Overdose Death Toll Rises, VCU Program Tries To Help Pregnant Women Overcome Addiction
VCU launched a multidisciplinary pilot project last year aimed at helping pregnant women with substance use disorders overcome their addictions and prepare for motherhood. Through that program — which providers are now working to expand — Webb received medical assistance as well as extensive one-on-one and peer counseling. (Demeria, 4/30)
Meanwhile, a new documentary follows four people whose lives were destroyed by addictions that all began with legitimate prescriptions —
The Wall Street Journal: Unsparing Look At The Opioid Crisis In ‘Warning: This Drug May Kill You'
When director Perri Peltz’s son was diagnosed with a severe case of strep throat last year, his emergency-room doctor sent him back to college with 30 Percocet pills. Ms. Peltz couldn’t believe it. She had just begun filming “Warning: This Drug May Kill You,” a documentary about opioid addiction in the U.S. “If I hadn’t started working on this I might not have thought twice about the prescription,” Ms. Peltz says. “He was going back to a dormitory, and I realized that this moment in the ER was in a way ground zero for how opioid addiction can begin.” (Wolfe, 4/30)
