usnews.com: Volunteers to Raise Awareness About Opioid Abuse

10/6/2017

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Some 2,000 volunteers across New Jersey are fanning out to raise awareness about opioid abuse.

Friday is Knock Out Opioid Abuse Day.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey and other community groups are distributing information about the risks of prescription pain medications and their links to heroin abuse.

New Jersey on Thursday filed a lawsuit against a drug company that makes a powerful fentanyl painkiller spray. The state alleges that Insys Therapeutics Inc. directed its sales force to have doctors prescribe the drug Subsys for any type of chronic pain even though it was only approved for cancer patients who couldn't benefit from other opioids.

Insys has previously said that the marketing of Subsys was appropriate.