Maryland Lawmakers Seek ‘I’m Alive Today’ App For Parents Who Abuse Opioids, Can’t Care For Babies
In Maryland, when an infant is confirmed as drug-exposed, the mother is referred to a social worker. The app would would help social workers reach out to parents with automated prompts asking, “Are you able to care for your child?” News on the opioid epidemic comes out of Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Ohio, also.
The Washington Post:
Maryland Lawmaker Mike McKay Wants To Use A Mobile Phone App To Protect Babies Born To Drug Addicts
Elizabeth Stahlman was on maternity leave in 2016 when she heard about a Pennsylvania infant who died of starvation days after both of the baby’s parents fatally overdosed on opioids. If only someone had checked in, she thought, the child — from a town about an hour from her home in rural Western Maryland — may have lived. What if someone had been monitoring? After she returned to her job as a community development director for the city of Frostburg, Stahlman began working with Del. Michael W. McKay (R-Allegany) on legislation for a mobile app to help social-service officials verify whether parents with a history of drug addiction can safely care for their newborns. (Hernandez, 1/15)
The Washington Post:
Fentanyl Overdose: Michigan Toddler Died After Ingesting Parents' Drugs
A toddler in Michigan died after ingesting an “extraordinary level” of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is far more potent than heroin, authorities say. Ava Floyd, 18 months old, died on Christmas Day. The prosecutor’s office in the Detroit suburb of Macomb County said the child’s parents had been producing and packing fentanyl in their home and she ingested the narcotic. Antonio Floyd, 28, and Shantanice Barksdale, 27, were charged Monday with second-degree murder, manslaughter, second-degree child abuse, and delivering or manufacturing a controlled substance, among other charges. (Phillips, 1/15)
Boston Globe:
Boston, Cambridge Mayors Plan Visits To Safe Injection Sites In Canada
The mayors of Boston and Cambridge are traveling to Canada this week to visit centers where people can inject drugs under medical supervision. Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Mayor Marc C. McGovern of Cambridge, both members of a state commission investigating the idea of opening such facilities in Massachusetts, planned their trips separately and won’t be traveling together, officials said. (Freyer, 1/15)
Boston Globe:
In Quincy, Hit Hard By Opioid Crisis, Mobile Treatment Van Cuts Hours, Putting Recoveries At Risk
This parking lot behind a Southern Artery gas station doesn’t look much like a doctor’s office, but every morning about 25o people make their way to this dead-end street to take their medicine. In Quincy, a city hit hard by the opioid epidemic, the only legal place for many patients to take anti-addiction medications that have helped them reclaim their lives is an old conversion van parked near a homeless shelter, not far from Mount Wollaston Cemetery.But not on weekends anymore. (Ramos, 1/15)
KCUR:
An Unlikely Treatment Offers Hope For Chronic Pain Sufferers But Drug Makers See Little Incentive
Doctors generally agree that opioids are not a good choice for treating most chronic pain. But scientists have struggled to develop safe pain treatments that provide the same level of relief as opioids. Now there's hope that might change. New research supports the use of a treatment method that’s lurked for years on the fringes of medicine. The question is whether it will remain stuck there. ...naltrexone may seem like exactly the wrong drug to take. It’s typically used to treat alcohol or opioid addiction by shutting down opioid receptors – some of the brain’s most important feel-good regions. And many people who take naltrexone for addiction often experience side effects like headache, muscle pain and cramps. Since the 1980s, however, some patients have sworn by low doses of the drug to treat their chronic pain. (Smith, 1/16)
New Hampshire Public Radio:
N.H. Legislature Could Ramp Up Oversight Over Sober Living
New Hampshire lawmakers are considering a bill to give towns more oversight over sober living facilities. The facilities rent rooms to people recovering from addiction, with the goal of staying clean and finding community support. (Gibson, 1/15)
The Associated Press:
Hospital: Doc Gave Near-Death Patients Excessive Pain Meds
An intensive care doctor ordered "significantly excessive and potentially fatal" doses of pain medicine for at least 27 near-death patients in the past few years after families asked that lifesaving measures be stopped, an Ohio hospital system announced after being sued by a family alleging an improper dose of fentanyl actively hastened the death of one of those patients. (1/15)
