opioids

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The VA Pumped Vets With Opioids. Now There's a Bigger Problem

How ex-service members got hooked on painkillers, and how the VA is letting them down: 'WSJ'

(Newser) - Veterans who return from service not only have to deal with everyday re-entry issues (finding jobs, reacclimating to life with family and friends), but also with the injuries and PTSD they may have brought home with them. To cope with the physical and mental pain, many of them are prescribed...

Federal Prosecutor Opens Up About Son's Heroin Death

Erik Brandler died in 2007 at age 16

(Newser) - The phone at Bruce Brandler's home rang at 3:37am. It was the local hospital. His 16-year-old son was there. A suspected heroin overdose, the nurse said. Brandler didn't believe it. Erik had his problems, but heroin? It seemed impossible. Nearly 10 years later, the nation is gripped...

WV Has 1.84M People, Got 780M Pain Pills
WV Has 1.84M People,
Got 780M Pain Pills
investigation
Dec 19, 2016 9:06 AM CST

WV Has 1.84M People, Got 780M Pain Pills

Data covers 2007 to 2012

(Newser) - In 2015, the state of West Virginia ranked first in the nation in per-capita opioid overdose deaths, according to CDC data . A new investigation by the Gazette-Mail reveals some harrowing background on how deaths like these may be facilitated. Over the 2007 to 2012 period, some 780 million hydrocodone and...

Many Who Use Prescription Opioids for 2 Months or More Get Addicted

Extensive survey finds worrying results

(Newser) - A powerful survey from the Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that, of the 622 long-term prescription opioid users (at least two months of use) surveyed, "virtually all" were introduced to the drugs not through illicit means but via a prescription from a doctor, more than 60%...

K9 Units Are Falling Victim to Powerful, Dangerous Drug

Police dogs are more susceptible than humans to dangers of fentanyl

(Newser) - Police officers conducting drug raids with their K9 units are now dealing with what the DEA has called an "unprecedented threat": fentanyl, the same powerful opioid that killed Prince earlier this year. Both the Miami Herald and NBC News report on the drug's dangers, which the cop canines...

Surgeon General: More People Use Opioids Than Tobacco

And other surprising news from surgeon general's first report on substance addiction

(Newser) - The latest (and first) surgeon general's report on substance addiction was released Thursday, and it offers up a surprising slew of factoids. Per NPR , Dr. Vivek Murthy says more people are hooked on prescription opioids than tobacco, 50% more people (20.8 million, per recent estimates) have substance abuse...

Search for Opioid 'Holy Grail' Is Killing People 40 Years Later

Synthetic opioid U-47700 has killed at least 125 people in 2016

(Newser) - "The bad guys, I hate to say it, are smart," a former DEA agent tells the Wall Street Journal . "They always seem to be a step ahead of the regulators.” The UN estimates that chemical labs around the world are cranking out "new psychoactive substances"...

Best Friends, 13, Killed by Opioid Named 'Pink'

Ryan Ainsworth, Grant Seaver died within 48 hours of each other in September

(Newser) - Two 13-year-old best friends in Utah died within 48 hours of each other in September, and now police know why: Toxicology results show that Ryan Ainsworth and Grant Seaver overdosed on a synthetic opioid nicknamed "pink," reports KSL . Authorities say they bought the drug, formally called U-47700, online...

Chemical Weapon for Sale: China's Unregulated Narcotic

The AP found 12 Chinese companies willing to ship carfentanil to the US

(Newser) - It's one of the strongest opioids in circulation, so deadly an amount smaller than a poppy seed can kill a person. Until July, when reports of carfentanil overdoses began to surface in the US, the substance was best known for knocking out moose and elephants—or as a chemical...

Medical Examiner's Son Dies of Drug Overdose

'No family is immune,' Wis. senator says

(Newser) - There have been more than 160 drug-related deaths in Milwaukee County, Wis., this year, 70 of them in the last seven weeks, and that is more than just a grim statistic for Chief Medical Examiner Brian Peterson. His own son, Adam Peterson, a 29-year-old with a history of drug use,...

Heroin Being Cut With Drug That Can Kill an Elephant

2 counties in Indiana and Ohio had up to 60 ODs in a 2-day period this week

(Newser) - One hundred times more potent than the drug that played a role in killing Prince and 10,000 times stronger than morphine, carfentanil is the strongest opioid commercially available—an animal tranquilizer so lethal it can kill if absorbed through the skin and permanently take out a 7-ton elephant, per...

Scientists May Have Discovered Addiction-less Painkiller

PZM21 could potentially replace morphine and other opioids

(Newser) - The Los Angeles Times reports scientists are "tantalizingly close" to the perfect painkilling drug. Researchers announced the discovery of PZM21 in a study published Wednesday in Nature . In testing on mice, the chemical compound relieved nearly as much pain as morphine—87% to 92%—and lasted longer. At the...

Getting Pain Meds Can Be Difficult— If You're Black

Study finds disparity in how they're doled out

(Newser) - White people are roughly twice as likely to die from prescription painkillers as black people in the US; now a new study finds that they're also twice as likely to be prescribed them. It's just the latest finding to show that minorities are treated differently when it comes...

Citing Prince's Death, Chaka Khan Goes to Rehab

Says she's addicted to same drug that killed the icon

(Newser) - Chaka Khan and her sister have both entered a drug rehabilitation program to battle their addictions to prescription drugs, and Kahn says the death of her good friend Prince helped hasten her decision to get help. In a statement released to the AP on Sunday, the 63-year-old Grammy-winning singer said...

Ex-Addict: I Got Prescription Opioids Way Too Easily

Doctors knew history, kept pills coming

(Newser) - Seth Mnookin is recovering from a three-year addiction to heroin, which he kicked in 1997. So when he went to Massachusetts General Hospital to be treated for kidney stones that left him in severe pain, he made sure to tell every medical professional he encountered about his history with addiction....

FDA: Imodium Misuse Could Be Fatal

The diarrhea medication is used to get high and cope with opioid withdrawals

(Newser) - An increasing amount of Americans are taking the diarrhea medication Imodium to get high or cope with withdrawals from opioid painkillers. Now, the FDA is warning that the misuse of Imodium—generically known as loperamide—could cause serious, possibly fatal heart problems. Thanks to America's increasing addiction to opioids,...

Prince Died of Opioid OD
 Prince Died of Painkiller OD 
UPDATED
Jun 2, 2016 6:21 PM CDT

Prince Died of Painkiller OD

Autopsy results are in

(Newser) - Prince died of an overdose of fentanyl, a powerful opioid painkiller that is up to 50 times more potent than heroin, autopsy results released Thursday show. The findings confirm suspicions that opioids played a role in the death of the superstar musician, who was found dead April 21 at his...

Prince Lay Dead in Elevator for 6 Hours

He had also sought help for apparent opioid addiction

(Newser) - Prince was apparently battling opioid addiction when he died—and when he did die, he lay in an elevator for at least six hours before being found, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Sources close to the investigation say Prince had suffered an opioid overdose on April 15 and received treatment...

Doctor Database Abused by Users Seeking Opioids

ProPublica admits problem with "Prescriber Checkup"

(Newser) - Looks like a freely available online database that reveals which doctors are prescribing what pills has partly backfired. Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief at ProPublica—which unveiled Prescriber Checkup in 2013—admits as much. "Thousands of the people ... viewed the 'reporting recipe' we wrote to help local journalists identify doctors...

Opioid Addicts Getting High on Diarrhea Meds&mdash;Fatally
Opioid Addicts Getting High on Diarrhea Meds—Fatally
in case you missed it
May 8, 2016 6:30 AM CDT

Opioid Addicts Getting High on Diarrhea Meds—Fatally

'As dumb and dangerous as it sounds'

(Newser) - In yet another sign that the US is facing a mounting opioid epidemic, people are trying to get high, or at least temper their opiate withdrawals, off an anti-diarrhea drug commonly sold under the brand name Imodium, reports NPR . In the journal Annals of Emergency Medicine , researchers note an uptick...

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