Southeastern States Battle Against Prescription Drug/Opioid Abuse
Editor’s Note: This is part of a team report on opioid use by injured workers. For the national story read: Opioid Epidemic Plagues Workers’ Comp Deaths from prescription drug overdoses jumped 360...
View ArticleOhio Firm Launches Program Aimed at Opioid Abuse in Workers’ Comp
Lewis Center, Ohio-based Modern Medical announced the nationwide roll out of a program designed stop the rise of opioid abuse in the workers’ compensation industry. Opioid Defense Manager (ODM) was...
View ArticleDrugmakers Work on Safer Painkillers as Opioid Abuse Epidemic Rages
Backed by a U.S. campaign to slow abuse of prescription painkillers, drugmakers are devising new forms of the medicines that don’t lead to misuse and new products that treat dependency in a bid to...
View ArticleNevada Legislator Wants Names Of Doctors Who Overprescribe
The chairman of the Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee is asking the drug company that makes OxyContin to turn over information about Nevada doctors suspected of overprescribing the powerful pain...
View ArticleCVS Shuts Access to Opioid Painkillers for Suspect Doctors
CVS Caremark Corp said on Wednesday that it has taken the unusual step of cutting off access to powerful painkillers for more than 36 doctors and other healthcare providers found to prescribe the drugs...
View ArticleKentucky OxyContin Case Against Purdue Pharma Leads Fight Over Opioid Abuse
No one rises as Circuit Judge Steven Combs enters his courtroom in Pikeville, Kentucky. Combs wears a white shirt and yellow tie, no robe. Lawyers approach the bench as their cases are called, shake...
View ArticleOklahoma Prescription Drug Database Bill Signed by Governor
Doctors in Oklahoma would be required to check a new prescription drug database before prescribing certain addictive drugs under a bill signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin. After the Senate voted 35-10...
View ArticleTask force: Massachusetts Is in Midst of Opioid Abuse Epidemic
Massachusetts is in the midst of an epidemic of deadly opioid abuse, according to a task force created by Gov. Charlie Baker that said Monday that drug addiction must be considered a medical disease....
View ArticleOpioid Abuse Rises in Construction, Manufacturing Sectors: CNA
CNA recently issued two new reports that examine the growing prescription opioid abuse epidemic and its effect on the U.S. workforce, focusing on the construction and manufacturing industries, which...
View ArticleTennessee Reports Increase in Opioid-Related Deaths in 2014
Statistics from the Tennessee Department of Health revealed that 1,263 Tennesseans died in 2014 from opioid overdoses despite measures designed to stop the addiction. In 2014, the state saw 97 more...
View ArticleOpioid Overdose Fatalities Appear to Be Increasing in Massachusetts
Opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts appear to have continued increasing above totals that were high enough last year for officials to deem it a public health crisis, according to...
View ArticleNonmedical Opioid Use Declines But Prescription Disorders, Deaths Rise: JAMA
New research suggests that while new medical guidelines and increased public awareness of problems with the use of opioids to treat chronic pain may be helping to slow the number of new opioid users,...
View ArticleWest Virginia Hospital Association Releases Guidelines to Reduce Opioid Drug...
The West Virginia Hospital Association Board of Trustees has endorsed a set of guidelines to help West Virginia’s hospitals reduce the misuse of opioid prescription drugs. Director of Communications...
View ArticleNumber of Opioid Prescriptions for Injured Ohio Workers Drops
The amount of opioids prescribed to injured Ohio workers has fallen significantly since the state’s insurance fund for injured workers created a pharmacy management program amid concerns about...
View ArticleNew Jersey Hospital Cutting Down on Opioids in Emergency Room
Mark Rosenberg doesn’t need to go to his job as chairman of emergency medicine at New Jersey’s busiest emergency room to get a bracing insight into the mushrooming problem of opioid abuse. He can think...
View ArticleEmployers Pay As 32% of Opioid Prescriptions Are Abused: Report
Nearly one out of every three (32 percent) opioid prescriptions, which are subsidized by America’s employers, is being abused, according to a report by a healthcare data and technology company. San...
View ArticleNevada Doctor Sued by Parents of Painkiller Overdose Victim
The Reno, Nev. doctor at the center of a federal investigation into an illegal prescription drug ring is being accused by the parents of an overdose victim of ignoring their warnings and continuing to...
View ArticleNew Hampshire’s Opioid Crisis Adds Urgency to Drug Prevention Education
As New Hampshire considers mandatory drug prevention education in all grades, the state’s opioid crisis has heightened the sense of urgency for existing programs that largely target teens. A proposal...
View ArticleReport: Alabama No. 1 in Country for Prescription Opioid Use
Alabama has the highest level of prescription opioid use in the country, and companies that make the painkillers and their allies have hired an average of 18 lobbyists annually in the state since 2006...
View ArticleMore Than $500K Donated to Delaware Officials to Address Rising Opioid Deaths
As the number of overdose deaths from prescription painkillers has soared in recent years, pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioid painkillers, and allied advocacy groups, have donated more...
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