Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Opioid Bill's Bipartisan Foundation Could Crack Over Dem's Demands For Emergency Funding
The Hill: Senate Readies For Battle Over Opioid Abuse
Democratic demands for $600 million in emergency funding is threatening to take down a bipartisan bill tackling the nation’s growing opioid addition. Legislation backed by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is coming to the Senate floor this week. (Carney, 2/28)
The Associated Press: New Twist in Addiction Crisis: Deadly Painkiller Imposters
Authorities are sounding the alarm about a new and deadly twist in the country's drug-addiction crisis in the form of a potent painkiller disguised as other medications. Tennessee officials say they've seen two dozen cases in recent months of pills marked as the less potent opiates oxycodone or Percocet that turned out to contain fentanyl, a far more powerful drug. One official likened the danger to users playing Russian roulette each time they buy a pill on the street. (Welsh-Huggins, 2/29)
The Baltimore Sun: Heroin In Anne Arundel: Whites Are Dying, Blacks Are Going To Jail
Speaking at a symposium on opiate and prescription painkiller abuse, County Executive Steve Schuh described heroin as an addiction that knows no bounds. "Heroin and opiates, as you know, touch every aspect of this community: Nobody is safe; nobody is immune," he said at the event that attracted about 200 health professionals to the Annapolis Doubletree Hotel in April. "It's north, south, east, west. It's men, women, old, young, black, white, rich, poor. It is absolutely everywhere, and the statistics are frightening." (Sauers, 2/29)
