Opioids

U.S. Schools Will Now Carry Overdose Medication

Los Angeles public schools will stock campuses with the overdose reversal drug naloxone in the aftermath of a student’s death.

The nation’s second-largest school district will now start carrying a medication to reverse opioid overdoses.

It’s a terrifying sign of the times after seven teens overdosed, one of them dying on campus.

“Our system has been deeply impacted by the injury to some students and the death of at least one student as a result of an unacceptable level of availability of narcotics and opioids in our community,” said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District.

The LA Unified School District isn’t alone. Hartford, Connecticut schools started carrying naloxone after a seventh-grader died in January.

Schools near Vail, Colorado have also been carrying the medication as of this school year. The same goes for schools in parts of Oregon and Texas.

All over the country, there’s a rush to stock schools with a life-saver as more young high schoolers die taking fentanyl-laced drugs.

“They’re even packaging it in colored pills, presumably to make it attractive to a younger and younger group,” said Chief Greg Dull, at Excelsior Springs, Miss. Police Department.

In Kansas City Sarah Manser put up a billboard trying to get parents’ attention after her son died from fentanyl poisoning.

“He was kind, he called me mama. I miss that, you know,” said Manser. “If I can even stop one person from overdosing, I will definitely.”

In nearby Clay County, Missouri, detectives are trying desperately to stop the flow of pills into teen groups and schools.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my 24 years. Ever. So that’s the hard part. You know, I hate to say it but it’s almost triage, that’s the way we’re dealing with it right now,” said Michael Nelson, a detective at Clay County, Miss. Sheriffs’ Office.

The DEA is trying to raise awareness among parents and kids about dealers hawking pills on social media.

What might just seem like illegal painkillers, are laced with fentanyl — a synthetic opioid 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

“Your kid could be on social media or in their bedroom, where you think they’re safe, ordering an illicit pill that’s ultimately gonna lead to an overdose and to them being killed,” said Orville Greene, a special agent in charge at the Detroit Field Division of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

In schools the education is paying off.

Heather Guilkey is a Missouri school district administrator.

“We would have lost one of our students,” said Guilkey.

At a school near Kansas City, a nurse treated a students’ overdose only because a teacher knew what to look for.

“You hear about these things; you just don’t think it will happen in your school,” said Guilkey.

It’s proof that education works. It’s just a matter of stopping the drug’s flow.

That’s something that’s taxing law enforcement at the southern border.

“We’re finding packages floating in gas tanks and in drive shafts, we’re getting people carrying strapped to their body. Even inside human bodies,” said Michael Humphries, the Nogales Port director for U.S. Customs And Border Protection.

It’s frustrating law enforcement from California to Florida and everywhere in between. It’s coming down hard on the country’s kids and students who should be getting textbooks, not overdose treatments.

Source: newsy.com

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States Begin Receiving Money From $26B Opioid Settlement

Families hope the money can help combat an epidemic some say is just getting worse, as fentanyl claims lives and targets younger generations.

Opioids rocked households and seized people of all walks of life.

Kim Humphrey, a commander with the Phoenix Police Department at the time, thought he had it all.

“A marriage, a home, a wonderful life raising two sons,” he said. “It was really good.”

But a call about his 15-year-old son ignited distress that would span nearly a decade:

“‘My daughter goes to school with your son and she’s very concerned that he’s going to overdose,'” he continued.

A drug test confirmed their fear — it came back positive for opioids. The struggle spiraled and extended its grip to their second son.

“As a parent, we’re looking at this and saying, ‘We must be the worst parents on the planet,'” Humphrey said.

It took Humphrey and his wife years to find a nonprofit support group called Parents of Addicted Loved Ones, also known as PAL, which he now leads.

“That was the first time that we were sitting in a room full of people who understood,” Humphrey continued.

The opioid crisis contributed to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. in two decades. At the epicenter — three major pharmaceutical distributors and manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. A yearslong multistate lawsuit led to a historic $26 billion settlement over the next 18 years.

Now, some of that money is starting to come in. This year, by the end of August, 27 of nearly 50 states that filed lawsuits had received a total of $310 million. Of that, Arizona received $16 million of their more than $540 million settlement — money Humphrey hopes will trickle down to PAL, which is in dire need of financial assistance following the pandemic.

“What we do is this peer-to-peer support that has plenty of research behind it that it works. And it did for us,” Humphrey said.

Each state and county has a say in how the money is spent. In Wisconsin, a spending dispute temporarily blocked funds from distribution.

Sara Whaley, a research associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the school put together five planning principles to help guide states on spending.

“This is the opportunity to kind of look at what you’re doing and where you’re investing money, and if there are any gaps,” she said. “One, is to spend the money to save lives. Two, is to use evidence to guide spending. Three, invest in youth prevention. Four, focus on racial equity. And five, create a fair and transparent process.”

She adds that the settlement includes basic payout guidelines.

“They are things like broadening access to naloxone or increasing the use of medications to treat opioid use disorder, enriching prevention strategies, improving treatment in jail,” Whaley said.

It’s treatment desperately needed as fentanyl fuels deaths and overdoses, with a holistic and smart spending approach.

Humphrey hopes families can find the peace his has now reached. Both his sons are now clean.

Source: newsy.com

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Officials See Wave Of Rainbow-Colored Fentanyl Across 21 States

The colorful drug comes in various shapes and sizes including pills, powder and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl has been seized along the southwest border this year alone. Officials believe this year may surpass last fiscal year — and unlike in the past, officers say some fentanyl trying to get past border checkpoints looks like Skittles or SweeTarts.

Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl — roughly 10 to 15 grains of table salt — is enough to kill.

An overdose shook Shaunna Jacobs awake from her addiction to prescription pills — heroin and fentanyl.

“I was all alone, everyone was asleep and I woke up all by myself and it really scared me,” she said.

Now four years clean, she’s worried about “rainbow fentanyl,” a trend on the rise that warranted a warning from the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The DEA and law enforcement officers reported seizing the brightly colored fentanyl in at least 21 states.

“We consider it a deliberate effort by the traffickers to drive addiction amongst young kids and adults,” DEA Special Agent Orville Greene said.

Greene says he seized the first batch of rainbow fentanyl in mid-August.

On the Arizona-Mexico border, Nogales Port of Entry Director Michael Humphries says in the last month they’ve confiscated at least five loads of rainbow fentanyl.

He worries the dangerous drug will land in the wrong hands.

“A younger child that doesn’t know, that sees it on the nightstand of a parent or a brother or sister — it’s very concerning,” Humphries said. “They may think it’s candy. ”

Customs and Border Protection officers’ K-9s and X-ray machines help track down the deadly drug at the southern border.

Officers have found rainbow fentanyl on people, in various parts of vehicles, even in the air intake of a motorcycle.

Officials say their biggest seizure at the Nogales Port of Entry was 47,000 rainbow fentanyl pills.

The colorful drug comes in various shapes and sizes including pills, powder and blocks that resemble sidewalk chalk — the product of the Sinaloa and Jalisco drug cartels.

In 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. Sixty-six percent of those deaths were related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I share my story in hopes that people wouldn’t have to go through what I did,” Jacobs said.

It’s a life-altering lesson to potentially help save countless lives.

Source: newsy.com

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Why Does U.S. Life Expectancy Rank Poorly?

Life expectancy is a key metric used to determine the heath of a country. The World Bank says it’s improving around the world.

How long will you live? It could be an inspiring or scary question.

But to a demographer It’s neither. It’s a key metric that says a lot about the health of a country.

In 1960 the average American’s life expectancy was almost 70 years old, according to the World Bank.

The U.S. ranked 189th in the world.

Today the nation has made progress, with an average life expectancy of 77.

But other countries have made greater strides. As of 2020, the U.S. was ranked 61st out of 237 nations.

Why have other countries surged ahead? And how could the U.S. improve?

To answer these questions we’re focusing on three countries: the U.S., the richest country in the world, according to the World Bank; Japan, the third richest; and Chile, ranked 43rd.

We spoke to Joseph Chamie. He’s the former director of the United Nations Population Division.

“The U.S. was doing very well right after World War II in 1950, ’55, relative to those countries,” said Chamie.

During the post-war boom, Americans benefited from medical advances, like penicillin and open heart surgery.

Japanese men had a life expectancy of 24 during the war, thanks in part to combat and food shortages.

“Japan’s life expectancy was lower than the U.S. in the early fifties. Of course they have to rebuild their societies,” said Chamie.

The new Japanese government passed 32 health laws between 1946 and 1955 aimed at regulating doctors and nurses, requiring school lunches, reducing pollution and preventing infectious disease.

Japanese life expectancy shot up 14 years between 1947 and 1955, according to government data.

“In the case of Chile, it was even more remarkable,” Chamie said.

Chileans’ life expectancy was 54 years old in 1950.

“Chile in particular saw a dramatic increase in life expectancy. They were able to provide health care systems, developing that preventive care, dropping infant mortality rates,” Chamie said.

Meanwhile in 1961, Japan established universal health insurance.

The government covered half of everyone’s medical costs.

“But there are many factors in Japan that were contributing to a lower mortality. One of them, of course, was diet and obesity. Eating more fish and more vegetables than the American diet,” Chamie said.

Americans lived longer as the 20th century progressed, but we also developed some unhealthy habits.

“In the U.S. the diet started increasing with greater and greater reliance on prepared foods, commonly called junk foods, fast foods. More and more people involved in work and doing less exercise.”

“In the U.S., many people are lacking health care systems in place, so they are not taking preventive action early enough to deal with illnesses. Especially the last 20, 30 years, drug addiction, opioids have gotten a become an epidemic level proportion. Obesity has also gotten much higher,” said Chamie.

“Chile and Japan, they’re providing health care systems, and also supporting people so they feel integrated in society,” Chamie said. “They did some comparisons of Japanese who went to Hawaii and California. And you find that they changed their diet, increased obesity and also lower life expectancy because of that diet change.”

“We’re spending a great deal of money on our health care and doing not as well as many other countries, including China, Japan and Chile,” he continued. “Individual responsibility is certainly one area. Second, providing health care systems and adequate services to assist people so that they will live to old age.”

So many factors determine how long we’ll live. But Chamie says learning from other countries’ successes might help us improve longevity here at home.

Source: newsy.com

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Walmart, Walgreens, CVS Ordered To Pay $650M To Rectify Opioid Abuse

This trial was part of a broader constellation of about 3,000 federal opioid lawsuits.

A federal judge in Cleveland awarded $650 million in damages Wednesday to two Ohio counties that sued CVS, Walgreens and Walmart over the way the national pharmacy chains distributed opioids to their communities.

U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said in his ruling that the money will be used to fight the opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties outside Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties put the total price tag at $3.3 billion for the damage done.

The judge admonished the three companies, saying they “squandered the opportunity to present a meaningful plan to abate the nuisance” after proceedings last spring to determine what the counties were owed.

Lake County is to receive $306 million over 15 years. Trumbull County is to receive $344 million over the same period. Polster ordered the companies to immediately fork over nearly $87 million to cover the first two years of payments, but it was unclear whether they had to pay that money during their appeals.

“Today marks the start of a new day in our fight to end the opioid epidemic,” Lake County Commissioner John Hamercheck said in a statement.

A jury in November returned a verdict in favor of the counties after a six-week trial. It was then left to the judge to decide how much the counties should receive. He heard testimony in May to determine damages.

The counties convinced the jury that the pharmacies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication.

It was the first time pharmacy companies completed a trial to defend themselves in a drug crisis that has killed a half-million Americans since 1999.

The decision on damages came on the same day that attorneys general from numerous states announced they had reached an agreement with opioid maker Endo International to pay as much as $450 million over 10 years. The payments settle allegations the company used deceptive marketing practices “that downplayed the risk of addiction and overstated the benefits” of opioids.

Attorneys for the pharmacy chains insisted they had policies to stem the flow of pills when pharmacists voiced concerns and would notify authorities about suspicious orders from doctors. They also said it was doctors who controlled how many pills were prescribed for legitimate medical needs, not pharmacies.

Walmart issued a statement Wednesday saying the counties “sued Walmart in search of deep pockets, and this judgment follows a trial that was engineered to favor the plaintiffs’ attorneys and was riddled with remarkable legal and factual mistakes.”

Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman said: “The facts and the law did not support the jury verdict last fall, and they do not support the court’s decision now.”

He said the court “committed significant legal errors in allowing the case to go before a jury on a flawed legal theory that is inconsistent with Ohio law and compounded those errors in reaching its ruling regarding damages.”

CVS spokesperson Michael DeAngelis said the company strongly disagreed with the court’s decision on damages as well as the underlying verdict.

CVS is based in Rhode Island, Walgreens in Illinois and Walmart in Arkansas.

Two chains — Rite Aid and Giant Eagle — settled lawsuits with the counties before trial. The amounts they paid have not been disclosed publicly.

Mark Lanier, an attorney for the counties, said during the trial that the pharmacies were attempting to blame everyone but themselves.

The opioid crisis has overwhelmed courts, social-service agencies and law enforcement in Ohio’s blue-collar corner east of Cleveland, leaving behind heartbroken families and babies born to addicted mothers, Lanier told jurors.

Roughly 80 million prescription painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone between 2012 and 2016 — equivalent to 400 for every resident. In Lake County, some 61 million pills were distributed during that period.

Prescriptions for pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone rose as medical groups began recognizing that patients have the right to be treated for pain, Kaspar Stoffelmayr, an attorney for Walgreens, said at the opening of the trial.

The problem, he said, was that “pharmaceutical manufacturers tricked doctors into writing way too many pills.”

The counties said pharmacies should be the last line of defense to prevent pills from getting into the wrong hands.

The trial was part of a broader constellation of about 3,000 federal opioid lawsuits consolidated under Polster’s supervision. Other cases are moving ahead in state courts.

Kevin Roy, chief public policy officer at Shatterproof, an organization that advocates for solutions to addiction, said in November that the verdict could lead pharmacies to follow the path of major distribution companies and some drugmakers that have reached nationwide settlements of opioid cases worth billions of dollars. So far, no pharmacy has reached a nationwide settlement.

The agreement with Ireland-based Endo calls for the $450 million to be divided between participating states and communities. It also calls for Endo to put opioid-related documents online for public viewing and pay $2.75 million in expenses to publicly archive those documents.

Endo can never again market opioids, according to the agreement. It filed Tuesday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The company, which has its U.S. headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania, did not respond Wednesday to telephone and email requests for comment about the agreement.

Endo produces generic opioids and name brands such as Percocet and Endocet. The company’s Opana ER opioid was withdrawn from the market in 2017.

The attorneys general say Endo “falsely promoted the benefits” of Opana ER’s “so-called abuse deterrent formulation.” The attorneys general said the formulation did not deter abuse of the drug and led to deadly outbreaks of hepatitis and HIV resulting from people injecting it.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

Source: newsy.com

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A Pop-Up Vaccine Site in One of Canada’s Most Impoverished Neighborhoods

The gritty neighborhood is in one of Canada’s most dreamy and picturesque cities, on about 15 blocks that are among the poorest and the most squalid in the country.

An epicenter of Canada’s opioid crisis, the area has become a stark symbol of urban poverty, addiction and social marginalization in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, but also one of resilience, community and progressive social policies.

1,724 deaths in the province from drug overdoses, or an average of about 4.7 deaths a day, according to the British Columbia Coroners Service.

The vaccination program comes as British Columbia’s health care system is under severe strain because of the pandemic with hospitalizations reaching new heights. As of Friday, the province had recorded 123,000 cases of Covid-19, of which 1,550 people have died.

Meanwhile, in the Downtown Eastside, the virus appears to have been largely contained. In mid-February, the neighborhood had about 75 cases of the coronavirus in one week, according to the local health authority. Today, about 7,500 local residents have been vaccinated and cases have trickled down to about five this week.

Alana Paterson, a photographer for The New York Times, set out with her camera to document the vaccination program in action. A Vancouver resident herself, she told me she was heartened by the way dedicated nurses had managed to establish trust in a community with a strong distrust of authority. Some residents had told the nurses they were too afraid to get vaccinated.

@DanBilefsky

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Opioids

A Pop-Up Vaccine Site in One of Canada’s Most Impoverished Neighborhoods

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