Women Are At Risk In The Opioid Crisis
The opioid epidemic is one of the worst public health crises in American history. How did it take hold, and what can we do to avoid dangerous and deadly consequences for ourselves and our loved ones? Real Woman investigates.
From Thrive Global.
Opioid overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States
by Andrew Kolodny, MD
Twenty years ago, opioid overdose deaths in the United States were rare. Today, they are the leading cause of accidental death, surpassing motor vehicle crashes. In 2016, more than 64,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, a figure that exceeds in one year the total number of Americans killed during the entire Vietnam war.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been clear for several years about the cause of our nation’s opioid addiction epidemic. It has shown that a sharp increase in opioid overdose deaths and addiction paralleled an increase in opioid prescribing. In other words, the CDC is saying the opioid crisis was caused by overprescribing of opioids. The medical community did not start prescribing opioids more aggressively out of malicious intent. For most of us, it was a desire to treat pain more compassionately that led to overprescribing. To bring this public health crisis under control, doctors must prescribe more cautiously.
Guest Editorial by Elaine Pozycki. From the Herald News, Fall River:
Like so many moms across this country, my son became addicted to opioid pain relievers after they were prescribed to him to treat a sports injury. Had I just been told about the addictive qualities of the medicine Steven was prescribed, I would have known to look for alternatives. I would have known to look for signs of dependency earlier.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Gov. Gina Raimondo has signed three bills into law aimed at combating Rhode Island’s opioid epidemic.
The legislation allows law enforcement access to an electronic database of prescription painkillers without a warrant; requires health care professionals to discuss the risks of addiction with patients when writing opioid prescriptions; and expands the type of pharmaceuticals that can be prescribed using electronic prescriptions, while ensuring patient privacy.
We are pleased that legislation we helped craft that puts in place pill and dosage limits for initial prescriptions to opiate-based painkillers, strengthens the state’s Prescription Monitoring Program and requires the Health Director to put in place a required training program as a condition of being licensed to prescribed opiates passed the General Assembly and was signed into law by the Governor. Click on S2823 Sub A below to read the whole law:
Senate Bill No. 2823 SUB A as amended
BY Archambault, Lombardi, Lynch Prata, McCaffrey, Metts
ENTITLED, AN ACT RELATING TO FOOD AND DRUGS — UNIFORM CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT–REGULATION OF MANUFACTURING, DISTRIBUTING, PRESCRIBING, ADMINISTERING, AND DISPENSING CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES (Requires pharmacies to transmit prescription information to the prescription monitoring data base within twenty-four hours of dispensing an opioid. Provides limits on amounts of opoids to be prescribed.)
When we use the term heroin “epidemic,” is that too strong a word? Or do you think that properly describes the scope of the current heroin problem in New Jersey?
There is a national epidemic of opioid addiction to opioid-based prescription painkillers and to heroin, their illegal street cousin, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And New Jersey is no exception. It is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States and in New Jersey, taking 28,893 lives nationally in 2014, 18,893 from prescription painkillers and 10,574 from heroin. More than 1,250 New Jerseyans died from drug overdoses in 2014. The heroin death rate in New Jersey is three times the national rate.
by STEVE and ELAINE POZYCKI in the Bernardsville News
EDITOR: Guidelines recently issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) take direct aim at the over-prescribing of opiate-based painkillers, urging primary care doctors to try alternatives such as physical therapy, exercise and over-the-counter pain medications first.
Underlying these strong recommendations to prescribe opiate-based painkillers, such as Oxycodone and Vicadin, sparingly is that the over-prescribing of these highly addictive drugs is the primary cause of our epidemic of addiction, both to these pills and to heroin, their illegal street cousin – an epidemic that has become the leading cause of accidental death in the United States and in New Jersey, taking nearly 30,000 lives in 2014.
by Steve and Elaine Pozycki from the New Jersey Spotlight
With opioid overdoses the chief cause of accidental death in New Jersey, the media can’t make these drugs an acceptable part of life
This week, the White House rightly criticized an ad, which aired during the Super Bowl, designed to promote a drug to treat opioid-induced constipation. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other officials blasted the ad, saying that the pharmaceutical companies should be running ads combating addiction, not fueling it. The danger of these kind of ads is that they normalize the use of opioid-based prescription painkillers, the overprescribing of which is the main driver fueling the epidemic of addiction to opiate-based painkillers and heroin.
From the Asbury Park Press:
“While addiction to opiate-based prescription pain killers and their illegal street cousin heroin is spreading in all demographic and age groups, teenagers are at particular risk. High school students who use prescription opioids like OxyContin, Vicodin and other pain relievers are 33 percent more likely to abuse the drug by the age of 23, according to a recent University of Michigan Study. Further, New Jersey now has the sixth-highest youth overdose rate in the nation.”
