91±¬ÁÏ

December 19, 2018

Frustrated opioid patients speak out: 'I now buy heroin on the street'

Hundreds of people who reached out to 91±¬ÁÏ through emails, and messages on social media, following the publication of a three-part series on the nation's struggle to address its crippling opioid crisis caused mainly by illegal drugs, and the unintended victims – chronic pain sufferers who have relied on prescribed opioids for relief -- left in its wake. 

December 18, 2018

White House nominee for Drug Czar: Hope and healing amid the horrors of addiction this holiday season

The most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that in 2017, someone in the U.S. died of a drug overdose every seven minutes.

December 17, 2018

Vaping boom: Twice the amount of teens vaping than last year, survey finds

It was the largest single-year increase in the survey's 44-year history.

December 14, 2018

Fentanyl now deadliest drug in America, meth overdoses growing, CDC says

Fentanyl is now the deadliest drug in America, beating out heroin and oxycodone which had previously been involved in the most overdose fatalities between 2011 and 2016.

December 12, 2018

Tough new opioid policies leave some cancer and post-surgery patients without painkillers

New federal and state hard lines on painkiller prescriptions are affecting even cancer patients and people fresh out of major surgeries.

December 12, 2018

Health experts offer solutions for unintended consequences of opioid crackdown

The most urgently needed first step to addressing the misunderstandings about Centers for Disease and Prevention opioid prescribing guidelines, many clinicians and health experts say, is for the agency to clarify – in a high-profile way-- what the guidelines were meant, and not meant, to do.

December 11, 2018

Doctors caught between struggling opioid patients and crackdown on prescriptions

Doctors are opting to stop prescribing legal opioids – even to people who are left bedridden without them -- as insurers, pharmacies, state medical boards and state and federal law enforcement authorities warn them about overstepping federal opioid prescribing guidelines (issued in 2016 by the Centers for Disease Control) and the regulatory or third-party limits that followed on the number of pills and daily dosage they can give patients. Some have stopped prescribing opioids after being faced with losing their medical license or getting arrested.

December 10, 2018

James Bond has a 'severe' drinking problem, researchers argue

He’s blowing well over a 0.07.

December 10, 2018

As doctors taper or end opioid prescriptions, many patients driven to despair, suicide

Doctors and medical establishments are sharply reducing doses of – or altogether no long prescribing -- pain medications, leaving many among the estimated 20 million Americans who suffer from daily debilitating chronic pain to consider ending their lives, and many others to kill themselves.

November 29, 2018

Overdoses, suicides push down US life expectancy

Suicides and drug overdoses pushed up U.S. deaths last year, and drove a continuing decline in how long Americans are expected to live.