In this Wednesday June 7, 2017 photo, activist Rocky Morrison, of the “Clean River Project”, holds up a fish bowl filled with hypodermic needles, that were recovered during 2016, on the Merrimack River next to their facility in Methuen, Mass. Morrison leads a cleanup effort along the Merrimack River, which winds through the old milling […]
opioids
Posted inBusiness, sj-web
Opioid prescriptions dropped for the first time in the modern drug crisis
The number of prescriptions for opioids written by health care providers declined between 2012 and 2015, the government reported Thursday, introducing a glimmer of progress in efforts to quell the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said prescriptions for highly addictive painkillers such as oxycodone dropped 13.1 percent […]
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Posted inLocal & State, sj-web
State House efforts to combat drug epidemic gets mixed reviews
AUGUSTA (AP) — Maine lawmakers hope new laws expanding access to the opioid reversal drug naloxone will stem overdose deaths. But advocacy groups say Maine hasn’t done enough prevention and treatment in the midst of a crisis. Drug overdose deaths in the state rose to 376 last year, from 208 in 2014. Republican Gov. Paul […]
Posted inNation / World
Opioid hospitalization increasing, Maine among top 10 states
Users of opioid painkillers often grapple with risking addiction or living with pain The coast-to-coast opioid epidemic is swamping hospitals, with government data published Tuesday showing 1.27 million emergency room visits or inpatient stays for opioid-related issues in a single year. The 2014 numbers, the latest available for every state and the District of Columbia, […]
Posted inLocal & State
Janet Mills joins other attorneys general to probe cause of opioid crisis
AUGUSTA — Maine’s attorney general is joining most of her counterparts in other states to probe the sales and marketing efforts of opioid manufacturers. “We need to get the genie back in the pill bottle,” Attorney General Janet Mills said. “Our society is awash in pills and it is killing us.” More than half of […]
Posted inLocal & State
Lawmakers oppose plan to create safe centers for drug addicts
AUGUSTA — A seemingly radical idea to create a couple of places where drug-addicted Mainers could go to shoot up in safety drew passionate debate from lawmakers who ultimately turned down the idea. Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn, said the notion of creating a safe, secure place for addicts to take prohibited drugs legally might seem […]
Posted inNation / World
Drug crisis pushing up death rates for almost all groups of Americans
The opioid epidemic that has ravaged life expectancy among economically stressed white Americans is taking a rising toll among blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, driving up the overall rate of premature death among Americans in the prime of their lives. Since the beginning of this decade, death rates have risen among people between the ages […]
Posted inLocal & State
Maine panel recommends bill to help chronic pain patients
AUGUSTA (AP) — A legislative committee is supporting a bill to give Maine doctors flexibility in prescribing opioid medication to patients living with chronic and severe pain. Some patients have said they are living in agony on smaller doses of painkillers thanks to a cap on daily opioid doses that lawmakers enacted last year. The […]
Posted inLocal & State
Kellyanne Conway, Paul LePage, Tom Price discuss opioid epidemic
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, left, Maine Gov. Paul LePage, center, and Kellyanne Conway, an advisor to President Trump, conduct a meeting to discuss the state’s efforts to fight the opioid epidemic Wednesday, May 10, 2017, at the State House in Augusta. The meeting includes relatives of those struggling with addiction […]
Posted inLocal & State
Paul LePage: It’s unfair Narcan is free but allergy pens aren’t
AUGUSTA — Maine’s Republican governor says people on opiates who get free shots of Narcan have an advantage over people with allergies who have to pay for their own medication. Gov. Paul LePage said during a Tuesday radio call-in that he got a letter from a dad whose family members have to carry allergy pens […]