Opioid addiction doesn’t discriminate based on sex, finances, or social status. It does, however, unfairly impact the black community in the United States. Drug abuse is a chronic disease that changes the c...
Tag: opioid epidemic
Oklahoma Opioid Lawsuit Verdict Sets New Standard for Drug Maker Culpability
Yesterday, in what has become the most notable opioid lawsuit in history, an Oklahoma judge ordered drug manufacturer, and Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals to pay $572 million for what ...
Paul Pellinger Discusses Opioid Addiction Crisis in 610 WIOD Radio Interview
Recovery Unplugged Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Paul Pellinger recently dropped by Miami’s 610 WIOD Radio to discuss how the opioid crisis is affecting new mothers, and the systemic issues that lead ...
Children: Invisible Victims of the Opioid Epidemic
Children often bear the brunt of their parents’ mistakes, and we’re learning that the opioid addiction crisis is no exception to this reality. According to recent data from the Children Services Association...
Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr Team Up to Address American Drug Addiction
We can all imagine a scenario in which we’re listening to a collaboration between Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh and saying, however hyperbolically, that the track “saved our lives”—the raw materials are cer...
Employers Feel Effects of Increased Marijuana and Opioid Use
Do you know someone at work from whom you can easily score marijuana or prescription painkillers? Have you seen someone die from overdose on the job from opioids? Have you witnessed someone noticeably impaired ...
Examining the Role of Kratom in the Opioid Crisis
The opioid overdose crisis has reached such epic proportions that it’s been declared a nationwide epidemic, with overdose and addiction rates ravaging the country. Due to the intensity of the deadliest drug c...
99-1: Senate Passes Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Bill
In a political climate in which we find ourselves so viscerally divided; so entrenched in our ways of thinking; so immovable that we often can’t even make the most basic concessions, the United States Senate ...
FDA Approves First Generic Versions of Suboxone® for Opioid Addiction Treatment
In a move that many are speculating will increase access to quality opioid addiction treatment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first generic form of sublingual (under-the-tongue) bupren...
Opioid Addiction Treatment Costs Increase for Large Employers
The toll of the opioid addiction epidemic continues to mount. The latest victim, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, is the business community. Use of prescription painkillers by Americans with...
Lawmakers Prepare to Tackle Opioid Abuse in Texas
In the wake of escalating overdose rates and lack of access to quality treatment resources, legislators in the lone star state claim they’re more serious than ever in tackling opioid abuse in Texas. Last week...
Opioid Overdoses Increase in 2018
In a bit of expected yet unwelcome news, opioid overdoses have risen in the United States. Despite all the hand wringing from stakeholders and the seemingly empty promises to get this public health issue under ...
Opioid Overdoses Rise…Again
In a bit of expected yet unwelcome news, opioid overdoses have risen in the United States. Despite all the hand wringing from stakeholders and the seemingly empty promises to get this public health issue under ...
Heroin(e) Documentary Takes Comprehensive Look at Opioid Addiction
Three days after the awards were presented, the political opinions were expressed and Frances McDormand’s statue was stolen and recovered, one of the most important stories from this year’s Oscars remains u...
Dealing with Health Issues from Opioid Addiction
By the time opioid addiction takes of us or the people we love, there is a five-alarm urgency to get into treatment and immediately start reversing the course of this deadly and debilitating illness. All we can...
New Bill Could Mean Progress in Fight against Fentanyl Abuse
New York Senator Chuck Schumer is urging President Trump to sign a bill into law that could strike a significant blow in the fight against fentanyl abuse in the United States. The legislation would pay for port...
Could Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Be an Alternative to Opioids for Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is a condition that has confounded physicians and the medical community at large for years. It was instrumental in the hastened approval and subsequent over-prescription of powerful prescription op...
The Treatment Gap: A Look at Why So Many People Aren’t Getting Help for Opioid Addiction in the US
Last year marked another landmark year for opioid fatalities. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that over 50,000 people died from opioid addiction in the US in 2016, accounting for an overw...
Expert Panel Paints Grim Picture of Florida Opioid Addiction Crisis for Senate Committee
On Monday, in a state that can arguably be characterized as Ground Zero for the national opioid epidemic, a committee of clinicians, law enforcement officials and various other stakeholders forecasted a grim fu...
Is an Anti-Opioid Abuse Vaccine on the Horizon?
It may sound like science fiction; however, as opioid abuse continues to ravage the United States, clinicians and stakeholders are working harder than ever to come up with solutions to the problem. To that end,...
CDC Reports Opioid Prescribing Rates Down Consistently Since 2010…Really?
There is a strange new conversation to be had among addiction treatment professionals, lawmakers, prevention advocates and anyone else with a stake in the opioid epidemic currently consuming the United States. ...
Opioid Addiction Prevention Funding Quadruples in National Budget
If you’re like many busy Americans, you probably haven’t had the time to comb through the many intricacies and fine points of the latest national budget to notice that it has dramatically increased funding ...
Misinformation Plays Significant Role in Texas Drug Epidemic
It’s, frankly, little surprise that many healthcare organizations and state agencies would have a hard time keeping up with the glut of addiction-related fatalities consuming the United States. The reality is...
What Impact Will China’s Fentanyl Ban Have?
In a move that could have a significant positive impact right here in the United States, China has announced plans to ban the sale and manufacture of four popular and powerful types of the synthetic opioid fent...
Opioid Addiction: The New American Reality
Officials in Louisville. Kentucky recently reported a significant spike in opioid-related drug overdoses, citing 52 incidents in a 32-hour period, a considerable increase from the average of 22 per day that Lou...
The Escalating Impact of Fentanyl
It’s a drug that many believe will be the dominant substance abuse threat of 2017. It has already contributed to a prodigious rise in the already staggering rates of heroin and opioid overdose in the United S...
Insurance Giant Ends Pre-Authorization Requirement for Buprenorphine
The battle against nationwide drug addiction and overdose may have just gained a powerful new ally. Connecticut-based insurance provider Cigna Corp. is ending the requirement that patients clear difficult admin...
Heroin Laced with Elephant Sedatives Invading Cities in the United States
There’s no longer any need to engage in hyperbole regarding the United States heroin epidemic. No alarmist rhetoric can match the sickening and urgent realities of the situation. In what has become the most d...
Opioid Addiction Highlighted at First Night of 2016 DNC
Although the world is likely to remember the first night of the 2016 Democratic National Convention for the speeches made by Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders, there was one speaker that resonated heavily with ...
The Relationship between Physicians and Big Pharma
The prescription painkiller and corresponding heroin epidemic is officially the worst substance abuse threat this country has ever seen. With thousands dying each year from prescription opioids like OxyContin, ...
Fentanyl Rapidly Becoming Nation’s Most Urgent Drug Threat
It’s a drug that many believe will be the dominant substance abuse threat of 2017. It has already contributed to a prodigious rise in the already staggering rates of opioid overdose in the United States. It...