Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Nation's First Opioid Court, Goal Shifts From Punishing Defendants To Keeping Them Alive
The New York Times: This Judge Has A Mission: Keep Defendants Alive
There are two kinds of defendants who enter Judge Craig D. Hannah’s courtroom: Those who stand on the far side of the bench to have their cases considered in the usual way, and those invited to step closer. Close enough to shake the judge’s hand or shout obscenities in his face, depending on their mood that day. Both kinds are facing criminal charges, but those in the second group have volunteered to take part in an experiment where the primary goal is to save their lives. Arrested for crimes related to addiction, they are participants in what is believed to be the nation’s first opioid court. (Williams, 1/3)
California Healthline: Drug Overdose Deaths Plateau In California, Soar Nationally
Even as the opioid crisis fueled overdose deaths across the nation, the number of Californians who succumbed to these and other drugs has remained stable, new federal data show. Deaths from opiates, cocaine and methamphetamines shot up by 35 percent in the United States between the year ending in May 2015 and that ending in May 2017, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Bartolone, 1/4)
Nashville Tennessean: Williamson County Files Lawsuit Against Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors
Williamson County filed a federal lawsuit against several drug manufacturers and distributors on Wednesday, alleging the companies failed to comply with the federal Controlled Substances Act. The lawsuit, filed in Tennessee's Middle District, names five of the nation's largest prescription opioid manufacturers and their related companies, as well as three major wholesale drug distributors, as defendants. (Sauber, 1/3)
San Francisco Chronicle: Effort Under Way To Make Naloxone Opioid Antidote More Accessible In State
Bay Area public health officials have begun receiving shipments of naloxone — the drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose — in the first state-funded effort to get the emergency antidote to local health departments across California. The distribution of the drug, funded by a one-time $3 million grant approved by state legislators in 2016, marks a ramp-up in the state’s response to deadly overdoses of prescription painkillers, heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl. (Ho, 1/3)
