How drugs intended for patients ended up in the hands of illegal users: ‘No one was doing their job’
Lenny Bernstein, David S. Fallis and Scott Higham,
The Washington Post
For 10 years, the government waged a behind-the-scenes war against pharmaceutical companies that hardly anyone knows: wholesale distributors of prescription narcotics that ship drugs from manufacturers to consumers. The Drug Enforcement Administration targeted these middlemen for a simple reason. If the agency could force the companies to police their own drug shipments, it could keep millions of pills out of the hands of abusers and dealers. That would be much more effective than fighting “diversion” of legal painkillers at each drugstore and pain clinic. Many companies held back drugs and alerted the DEA to signs of illegal activity, as required by law. But others did not. Collectively, 13 companies identified by The Washington Post knew or should have known that hundreds of millions of pills were ending up on the black market, according to court records, DEA documents and legal settlements in administrative cases, many of which are being reported here for the first time. Even when they were alerted to suspicious pain clinics or pharmacies by the DEA and their own employees, some distributors ignored the warnings and continued to send drugs.
Organ donations spike in the wake of the opioid epidemic
Martha Bebinger, National Public Radio
Across New England, there has been a nearly 900 percent increase in organ donations since 2010. So far this year, more than one in four, or 27 percent, of donations in New England are from people who died after a drug overdose. Nationally, that rate dips to 12 percent for the same period. “It’s remarkable and it’s also tragic,” says Alexandra Glazier, president and CEO of the New England Organ Bank. “We see this tragedy of the opioid epidemic as having an unexpected life-saving legacy.”
Fentanyl, carfentanil prompt higher naloxone dosage
Tom Valentino, Addiction Professional
As overdose deaths from heroin laced with fentanyl and carfentanil continue to rise, a pair of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panels have narrowly voted to recommend that the agency authorize higher minimum dosages for new naloxone products to better counteract the more potent street drugs. In overdoses associated with fentanyl (100 times more powerful than morphine) and carfentanil (10,000 times more powerful than morphine), multiple doses of naloxone are sometimes required to revive an individual, especially at the current minimum standard of 0.4 milligrams.
Implications of SBIRT for early identification of substance
use disorder
Paige Pennington, Behavioral Healthcare
Everyone in the addiction treatment recovery industry knows that too many Americans never receive addiction treatment because their disorders go completely undiagnosed. Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) is an evidence-based practice that has been clinically shown to identify, reduce and prevent substance misuse and the disease of addiction and ultimately reduce healthcare costs. While implementation barriers still exist, the Affordable Care Act has created valuable opportunities for the expansion of SBIRT utilization across various healthcare settings.
