The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner recorded more than 1,000 accidental overdose deaths for the first time in the last six years, and overall drug deaths in the state have nearly tripled in that time.
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Posted inHealth, Politics
‘It’s a public health crisis:’ Malloy proposals target opioids
The proposals include requiring physicians to prescribe opioids electronically rather than on paper; allowing visiting nurses to destroy unused medication; and allowing patients to direct that they not be prescribed an opioid medication.
Posted inHealth
After the save: A drug can reverse an overdose. Then what?
The drug naloxone can reverse an opioid overdose. Experts say it’s a vital tool, but in many ways, a short-term one: Naloxone saves lives, but it doesn’t necessarily change them. Now, a pilot program in one emergency room aims to connect people who have been revived after overdoses to longer-term recovery help.
Posted inHealth, Politics
As states vie for new opioid-fighting grants, Blumenthal puts CT in the mix
WASHINGTON — No sooner was the ink dry on President Obama’s signature on the 21st Century Cures Act than states, including Connecticut, started competing for new law’s $1 billion in grants to fight opioid addiction.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy chats with LePage: ‘He didn’t challenge me to a duel’
A conference of New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers became the awkward venue Monday for Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to present incarceration statistics that he says contradict Maine Gov. Paul LePage’s assertions that his state’s heroin crisis is the fault of out-of-state minorities.
Posted inPolitics
Malloy: Maine’s LePage ‘sounds racist’ on minorities, heroin
WATERBURY — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Friday that Maine Gov. Paul LePage “sounds like a racist” when suggesting his state’s heroin epidemic largely is the fault of outsiders, specifically blacks and Hispanics from places like “Waterbury, Conn., the Bronx and Brooklyn.”
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT Dems take stand on opioid funding – and lose
WASHINGTON — Despite protests and high drama over the level of money the federal government will spend fighting heroin addiction and prescription pain pill abuse, Democrats lost their battle this week to increase federal funds by nearly $1 billion to pay for additional treatment for addicts.
Posted inHealth
16 overdoses, two dead in six hours in New Haven
A toxic batch of heroin laced with fentanyl appears to have hit New Haven, with firefighters and cops rushing to rescue 16 different people who overdosed on drugs — at least two of them fatally — between 3:30 and 9:30 p.m. Thursday.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Feds release opioid prescription guidelines
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released long-awaited guidelines for prescribing opioid-based pain medicine, but it’s not clear how closely doctors will follow them.
Posted inHealth
Senate approves bill to fight opioid abuse that would offer CT help — within limits
WASHINGTON – Senate approval of a bill to fight the nation’s opioid epidemic is still likely to leave states like Connecticut on the front lines of the crisis – and to leave them short of all the help they need to prevent the destroyed lives that result from the abuse of pain killers and heroin.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Governors ask for money, share strategies to combat opioid crisis
WASHINGTON — The nation’s governors have pressed the federal government for money to help them combat the opioid abuse and heroin addiction that has resulted in a spike of overdoses and strained state public health systems. They also shared with the Obama administration and each other policies they’ve implemented to confront the crisis.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Courtney seeking emergency money to fight opioid addiction, overdoses
WASHINGTON – Days after President Obama said he’d ask Congress to boost funds to fight opioid and heroin addiction, Rep. Joe Courtney introduced a bill that would seek $600 million in emergency funds to pay for both drug enforcement and treatment.
Posted inPolitics
Congress takes aim at epidemic of opioid abuse
WASHINGTON — After states have spent years grappling with the problem, Congress may finally address the epidemic of heroin use and abuse of prescription pain killers which has affected Connecticut and the rest of New England more than much of the country.
Posted inHealth, Politics
Law enforcement access to CT drug monitoring data raises privacy concern
WASHINGTON — Connecticut’s Prescription Monitoring Program aims to stop the misuse of opioids and other dangerous drugs and save lives. But some are concerned these programs have given law enforcement officers access to private information about prescription drugs in your medicine cabinet.
Posted inHealth, Politics
CT lawmakers join war on heroin, painkillers
Washington – Washington has turned its attention to the epidemic of heroin addiction and overdose deaths – including more than 250 in Connecticut last year, but there’s a limit to what the federal government and Congress can do, especially in times of tight budget constraints.