Well now, this puts things in perspective https://t.co/3bKGI7pr73 via @UpshotNYT pic.twitter.com/lZba2GQyLI — David Juurlink (@DavidJuurlink) April 15, 2017 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Shared by my friend Chris Budnick. (emphasis his) “During the 1920s and 1930s a growing number of physicians and public health professionals came to view addiction as a manifestation of psychopathy or some other form of twisted personality, to support mandatory institutionalization of addicts, and to refuse to supply addicts (especially the nonmedical type) with … Continue reading Sentences to ponder

Claire McCaskill ratchets things up a notch: A leading Democratic senator is investigating the nation’s top opioid manufacturers to determine whether they contributed to overuse of the painkillers at the center of a deadly addiction crisis that has led to nearly 200,000 overdose deaths in the past 15 years. Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri on … Continue reading It’s beginning to feel like big tobacco all over again (part 2)

Do you recall the post about potential changes to Michigan's public funding for addiction treatment and mental health services? Well, the final report came in and it looked a lot like the interim report that my earlier post reported on. Basically, no major changes, but try some pilots to increase integration with physical health care. … Continue reading Voice Your Opinion on Funding changes for Michigan’s Addiction and Mental Health Services

There's, this: City officials in Everett - that's in western Washington state - are taking a bold step in their effort to control the opioid crisis. The city filed a lawsuit against the manufacturer of OxyContin, a leading opioid pain medication, claiming the manufacturer knew the drug was being illegally trafficked to residents and did … Continue reading It’s beginning to feel like big tobacco all over again

From a review of 1,294,247 patient records from a database of commercial health plan information from a large number of managed care plans and is representative of the U.S. commercially insured population. The rate of long-term use was relatively low (6.0% on opioids 1 year later) for persons with at least 1 day of opioid therapy, … Continue reading 30% Of Patients Prescribed Opioids For More Than A Month Still On Them A Year Later

Bill White shares an open letter to congress: Two of the most important responses to the opioid epidemic have been the ACA’s expansion of Medicaid in 31 states and the District of Columbia and the ACA requirement that states include mental health and addiction treatment as reimbursable services. Those critical responses will be turned back … Continue reading Bill White’s message to congress

For the last couple of years, when trying to explain the experience of the opioid crisis, I've often said, "I imagine it's kinda like the AIDS epidemic in the late 1980s and early 1990s." However, I always qualify the statement by emphasizing "kinda" and saying something like, "I'm not saying it's that rough." Now, Andrew … Continue reading “the opioid epidemic is the new AIDS”

From Atul Gawande: We are running out of ways to emphasize how dire the opioid overdose crisis has become. In 2015, United States drug overdose deaths exceeded 50,000; 30,000 involved opioids. There were more deaths from opioid overdose than not only from motor vehicle accidents, but also than from HIV/AIDS at the peak of the … Continue reading Sentences to ponder

From the Brookings Institute: Forty percent of the men who aren’t working and aren’t even looking for work report taking pain medication every day, compared to 20 percent for those in the workforce.