Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Keeping Medications Away From Pain Sufferers During Opioid Epidemic Is No Solution
The Baltimore Sun: Don't Blame Fentanyl For Overdose Deaths, Blame Barriers To Treatment
The single biggest solution to ending this overdose epidemic is not complicated: access to medical treatment that includes the option for medication. Effective in stabilizing people in recovery, and FDA approved, medications such as buprenorphine (also known as Suboxone) have proven to cut the death toll by 50 percent or more. But government restrictions — requiring doctors to obtain a waiver to prescribe these life-saving medications and capping the number of patients they can treat — limit access for the vast majority of those in need. The states in the lead on reducing the death toll have worked within these restrictions, prioritizing increased access to medication assisted treatment. Think of the lives we could save nationwide if these senseless restrictions were lifted. (Jessie Dunleavy, 9/3)
Chicago Tribune: How To Prevent Overdose Deaths — And How Not To
Illicit opioid users often die of overdoses because, in an unregulated black market, they can’t be sure of what they are purchasing. As a result, they sometimes unwittingly inject more than their bodies can tolerate. They also die because they use drugs in places where there is no one to help if they stop breathing.Public health experts have devised a way to address these problems. “Supervised consumption sites” are spaces where people can obtain sterile syringes and inject drugs in the presence of medical personnel who can save them if they overdose. They can also get referrals for treatment. (Steve Chapman, 8/31)
Detroit News: Opioid Crisis Not Helped By Panic
Fear of opioids propels drug prohibition, the black market, and rising overdoses from heroin and fentanyl. It also drives the misguided prohibition on prescribing pain medication, causing patients to suffer and destroying lives. (Jeffery A. Singer, 9/2)
