Newsroom
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huffpost.com: Overdose Deaths Are Skyrocketing During The Pandemic. My Brother Was One Of Them.
Posted 7/27/2020
In May, my brother, a 43-year-old attorney and father of five, became a statistic.
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npr.org: Doctors And Dentists Still Flooding U.S. With Opioid Prescriptions
Posted 7/18/2020
Despite widespread devastation caused by America's opioid epidemic, an investigation by NPR found that doctors and other health care providers still prescribe highly addictive pain medications at rates widely considered unsafe.
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goodmorningamerica.com: Melissa Etheridge talks son's OD death and what she's doing to honor him
Posted 7/15/2020
For the first time since her son's tragic death, Melissa Etheridge is ready to open up about what she's been through and how she's been coping. "Time does heal. It's only been a couple of months, but I've been very busy and made myself very busy," Etheridge told "Good Morning America. "You go one day at a time -- you get through the grief and you get to the healing."
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psychcongress.com: Overdose Deaths on the Rise Again Amid COVID-19
Posted 6/4/2020
Suspected overdose submissions to the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s Overdose Data Mapping Application Program from January to April this year are up 16.6% vs. the same period in 2019, according to an ODMAP report.
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northjersey.com - New Jersey says doctors must prescribe Narcan alongside opioids for at-risk patients
Posted 5/22/2020
For the duration of the coronavirus crisis, doctors, dentists and other healthcare workers who prescribe opioids to patients with chronic pain may now have to prescribe an overdose-reversal drug alongside it. Announced Thursday by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, the rule demands healthcare practitioners prescribe naloxone, commonly known by its brand name Narcan, to those regularly taking higher doses of opioids or combining opioids with benzodiazepines, which include anti-anxiety medications like Xanax.
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wellbeingtrust.org - New WBT & Robert Graham Center Analysis: The COVID Pandemic Could Lead to 75,000 Additional Deaths from Alcohol and Drug Misuse and Suicide
Posted 5/12/2020
Oakland, Calif. (May 8, 2020) – Alongside the thousands of deaths from COVID-19, the growing epidemic of “deaths of despair” is increasing due to the pandemic—as many as 75,000 more people will die from drug or alcohol misuse and suicide, according to new research released by Well Being Trust (WBT) and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care.
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nj.com - A crisis within a crisis: People addicted to opioids must still get treatment during the pandemic
Posted 5/11/2020
Before the coronavirus pandemic, America was making hard-won progress in the fight against opioid use disorder and overdose deaths. Heartbreakingly, COVID-19 is now erasing those gains and taking deadly aim at the vulnerable population of persons struggling with opioid use disorder.
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psychcongress.com - Study: NJ Patient Notification Act Paying Dividends
Posted 4/30/2020
A New Jersey law enacted in 2017 that requires practitioners to discuss opioid pain medications’ potential for addiction with patients and to also discuss non-opioid alternatives when available appears to be making an impact, according to research released last week.
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nj.com: After spike in overdose, suicide calls, N.J. police department says you can still get help
Posted 4/17/2020
By Tennyson Donnie Coleman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Mount Olive Police say they have seen an "uptick” in drug overdoses and suicide calls in the days since New Jersey implemented lockdowns due to COVID-19. And social distancing can be a “death sentence” for people who are already drug users, some recovery and harm reduction advocates say.
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businessinsider.com: People who vape show DNA changes similar to smokers and that are linked to cancer
Posted 3/7/2020
Just 6.1% of British vapers in 2019 had never smoked, according to UK government research.