Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Lessons From Losing A Son To Opioid Addiction; Telling Doctors About Addiction-Related Deaths Pays Off
USA Today: I Lost My Son To The Opioid Crisis And Nothing Can Bring Him Back
Picture an NFL stadium holding a capacity crowd of 72,000. That number, according to a preliminary estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is about how many Americans died last year from drug overdoses. An entire stadium full of people. Our son Scott was one of those people. After a lengthy battle with opioid addiction, he suffered a fatal overdose Nov. 30. It was a Thursday night. My wife, Ellen, and I were watching the Redskins-Cowboys game from our home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. (Bill Sternberg, 9/5)
The New York Times: Here’s A Cheap Way To Fight Drug Misuse: Send Doctors A Sharp Letter
The letters doctors received from the county medical examiner included a shocking fact: A patient you once prescribed an opioid medication has died in the last year from a drug overdose. Faced with this statistic and others on annual county prescription drug deaths from the medical examiner, doctors reduced their prescribing of opioids by just under 10 percent, compared with doctors who didn’t get a letter. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 9/5)
News Herald: Opioid Crisis Grew Unchecked
If officials and authorities would have followed the money, it should have been easy to spot the tidal wave of opioid use. Congressional committees recently brought the top executives of opioid manufacturers to Washington to explain their role in America’s opioid epidemic. Sadly, the executives largely shifted the blame elsewhere. At its peak in 2012, physicians wrote 282 million opioid prescriptions — enough for eight in 10 Americans, Politico reported. Fortunately, the latest statistics suggest the prescription surge has slowed dramatically. But the surge drove home a somber reality in this country: Opioids have been America’s national pill. The fact is that other developed nations have not experienced the spikes in opioid use, opioid abuse and opioid-related overdoses that we have in this country. That’s led hundreds of cities and localities to sue opioid manufacturers — in part to obtain funding to treat opioid abuse victims. If officials and authorities would have followed the money, it should have been easy to spot the tidal wave of opioid use. (9/4)
Detroit News: Prisons Are Overlooked In Opioid Crisis
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention around 66 percent of the 63,600 drug overdose deaths in 2016 involved an opioid. In prisons and jails, dependency on opioids and use of synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, hydrocodone, and carfentanil have become increasingly common, putting the safety of staff, inmates and visitors at risk. From mail-rooms to drones in the yard, these drugs have consistently found their way into correctional institutions, leaving officers exposed and inmate consumers susceptible to the dangers of the opioid epidemic. Despite increased awareness and focus on prevention, the volume and availability of these drugs remains steady and continues to wreak havoc on the corrections system. (Andy Potter, 9/5)
