OPIOIDS

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why this “Flat Graph” is Only Partly Good News

The CDC maintains a running tally of the number of lives lost to drug overdoses in the United States. The last few months, a chart of these numbers is nearly flat, showing a pause in the rampant increases of prior months. Why isn’t this totally fabulous...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

More States Take Action to Fight Opioids But Is This the Right Target?

In Delaware and Louisiana, recent legislation has been enacted to fight each state’s problem with opioids. But is legislation—no matter how effective—going to enable us to eliminate our problem with addiction and overdose deaths?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New Federal Restrictions for Prescription Painkillers

Until fairly recently, you couldn’t get a prescription for opiate painkillers unless you were on your deathbed or in the midst of cancer treatment.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Are We Doing Enough Yet to Halt the Opioid Overdose Epidemic?

This a vitally important question to ask. Just talk to any parent who has lost a child to an overdose. A recent report from the CDC indicates that as yet, we are seeing more wreckage resulting from drug addiction, not less, meaning we have much more work...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Opioid Overdose Antidote Naloxone: Curse or Blessing?

It’s not difficult to pick up on the controversy swirling around the use of the opioid antidote naloxone. Some people see value in saving the lives of those who overdose. Others think that these people who seem to be trying so hard to die should be left...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

7 Reasons We Must Avoid “Tunnel Vision” as We Fight Addiction

As we work to solve America’s problems with drug addiction and overdoses, there’s an intense focus on opioids alone. Letting ourselves develop this kind of tunnel vision could result in our overlooking some truly vital aspects of our nation’s problems...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The ONE Thing You Need to Know about the Opioid Epidemic

There’s one simple fact that is more important than all others on the subject of our opioid epidemic…

STATISTICS & TRENDS

National Pharmacy Chain Responds To Opiate Epidemic with Stiffer Controls

As our nation suffers from the single worst opiate epidemic that it has ever faced, the American people are practically in a mad state looking for solutions to the problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specified that the problem took...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Opioid Crisis Infiltrates America’s Farmlands

You might think the great farms in America’s heartlands are the last places that drug addiction or overdose deaths would be problems. A recent survey of rural communities proves that even these areas have been infiltrated.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Birth of a Drug-Addled Nation

How did America get to the point of losing 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses in one year? We’ve traveled a long road to get to this point and in truth, most people haven’t even noticed the journey.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

New CDC Statistics Reveal Deepening Drug Epidemic

New evidence compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that we do not yet have the opioid epidemic or the loss of life from drug overdoses under control yet. We’re not even close.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: What Has to Happen to Return Prescription Control to the Right Hands? Part III

Let’s take a look at an ideal world—a world where drugs are only given when they are truly needed to improve health, where there is no undue or skewed influence causing patients to ask for specific types of medication, where doctors use nothing but...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: The Effects of Misplaced Control, Part II

When doctors prescribe any drug, it should only be done to improve a patient’s health, right? Over the last few decades, prescribing practices have begun to be influenced too heavily by the wrong parties. Millions of Americans have suffered as a result.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Solving the Opioid Crisis: Returning Control of Prescription Drugs to the Right Hands, Part I

Most Americans know we’re in the midst of a deadly opioid epidemic. But few realize that control of the rate and volume of prescribing addictive painkillers has moved into the wrong hands. Get educated now on this vital topic.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Failed Senate Investigation Could Have Saved Lives

In 2012, the Senate Finance Committee opened an investigation that could have revealed a hidden influence contributing to the loss of thousands of American lives. IF the report on this investigation had ever been published.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Why NOW Is the Most Dangerous Time in History to be Addicted to Opioids

Fentanyl as a painkiller is not new but as an illicit drug pervading the American drug market, it is a threat that’s only a few years old. And a deadly, deadly threat it is, too…

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Will Blue Lights Succeed in Stopping Pennsylvania Overdoses?

Some businesses with public restrooms are installing intense blue lights to prevent overdoses because they make it hard for drug users to locate their blue veins. How much will this measure help prevent overdoses?

STATISTICS & TRENDS

California Leads the Effort to Reduce Opioid Prescribing

On November 9, 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1048 Health care: Pain Management and Schedule II Drug Prescriptions into law. The two provisions of this law were simple but indicate a major shift in attitudes toward prescribing opioid painkillers.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Meth: The Biggest Problem Drug for Arkansas

Arkansas is a very rural state with widely scattered population centers. These remote areas permit the infiltration of Mexican drug cartels who bring addictive, deadly substances into the state.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

U.S. Government Takes Next Step Toward Addressing Public Health Emergency

On October 26, 2017, President Trump formally declared the nation’s opioid epidemic to be public health emergency and directed agencies and resources to overcome this tragic situation.