Tag: opioid crisis

Tennessee Atty Gen Hebert Slatery Withdraws from District Attorneys’ Case Against Opioid Manufacturers

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Tennessee Star

A conflict brewing between state and local prosecutors over a slew of lawsuits filed against drug manufacturers ended Thursday as Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery abruptly terminated any role his office might play in the legal actions by those jurisdictions seeking to recover costs associated to the opioid crisis. The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Attorney General Herbert Slatery’s move was carried out in Campbell County Circuit Court in front of Judge John McAffey. During proceedings, a representative from the Attorney General’s office read a statement culminating in the handover of a signed order that reflected the understanding that the state would not be involved in the suits, nor would the District Attorneys would not try to legally commit the state to their lawsuit against opiate makers and distributors. “The proposed order results from our joint commitment to the people of Tennessee and recognizes that state and local cooperation is essential to combat the opioid epidemic ravaging our state,” Knoxville News Sentinel reported the statement read. Attorney J. Gerard Stranch IV also submitted to Judge McAfee an order in which the DAs he represents agree they will not try to legally commit the state to their lawsuit against opiate makers and distributors.…

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JAMA Study: Non-Opioid Pain Relief Outperforms Opioids for Chronic Pain

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Opioids were found to have no benefit over non-opioid medications in relieving chronic pain, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday. The randomized clinical trial included 240 participants from Veteran Affairs primary care clinics who were seeking treatment for chronic pain related to their back, hip, knee or osteoarthritis. The average age of participants was 58.3 and majority male, with 32 female participants.

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CDC: ER Visits for Opioid Overdose Up 30 Percent in Recent Year

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Emergency room visits from opioid overdoses spiked 30 percent from July 2016 to September 2017, the government said Tuesday in a sobering report that underscores the need for targeted resources and expanded treatment. Every corner of the U.S. saw an uptick due to the prescription painkiller and heroin scourge, led by an average increase of 70 percent in the Midwest and followed by the West, at 40 percent.

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Tom Petty Died of Accidental Opioid Overdose: Family

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American rocker Tom Petty died in October of an accidental drug overdose after taking a variety of medications for his ailments including a mix of opioid painkillers, his family and the Los Angeles county medical examiner said Friday. The autopsy report says the 66-year-old Petty had fentanyl, oxycodone, temazepam and other drugs in his system when he died of cardiac arrest. Petty’s wife Dana and daughter Adria said the medical examiner told them he “passed away due to an accidental drug overdose as a result of taking a variety of medications.”

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Beth Harwell: Maybe Medical Marijuana ‘Is a Gift from God’

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Tennessee Speaker of the House and GOP gubernatorial candidate Beth Harwell (R-Nashville) made news Friday afternoon when, during a fairly routine interview with Memphis Local 24 about her aspirations to be the next governor, she posited if marijuana is “a gift from God.” Harwell’s position about on marijuana has taken a major turn after her sister, in an attempt to control pain from breaking her back, took an oral form of the drug was reportedly helped by it. As The Tennessee Star reported in August: According to an Associated Press report picked up by Connecticut-based The New Haven Register, Harwell relayed her personal story of how her sister broke her back and was prescribed opioids for the pain. The injury to her sister is the reason Harwell cited in a letter to the Rutherford County Republican Party explaining why she was unable to attend the Reagan Day dinner in May. Harwell recalled to the group that her sister, who had been prescribed opioids for her pain, “had no doubt” in her mind that if she were to “continue this opioid regimen, I will become addicted to opioids.” With Harwell’s sister living in Colorado where marijuana has been legalized, she used some for four or five days until…

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America’s Opioid Crisis Has Doctors Warning Nashville Patients, ‘You Will Feel Pain’

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Nashville Public Radio reports Tennessee’s medical community is in the midst of a major turnaround in the way they treat patients’ pain in response to the opioid addiction crisis gripping the nation: The big hospital chains based in Nashville are accepting some of the blame for the country’s opioid crisis, which grows more deadly by the year. They admit they were going overboard with opioids to make people as pain-free as possible. So in an effort to be part of the cure, they’re issuing an uncomfortable warning to patients — you’re going to feel some pain. Even for those who’ve never struggled with drug abuse, studies are finding that patients are at risk of addiction anytime they go under the knife. In short, one of the most common gateways to addiction is medical treatment, itself. NPR reporter Blake Farmer shares the all-too-common story of Las Vegas mom and paramedic Michelle Leavy, a healthy mother who underwent a c-section and was prescribed opioids to manage the post-surgical pain: [Leavy] welcomed the high-dose intravenous narcotics while she was in the hospital. And as she went home, she gladly followed doctors’ orders and kept ahead of the pain with her Percocet pills. But then she needed…

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Purdue, Maker of OxyContin, Launches Major Ad Campaign to Counter Critics

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The company last week launched an advertising campaign in national newspapers, Washington publications, and local papers in its home state of Connecticut. In a statement, Purdue said the ads were part of a broader “long-term initiative,” but declined to provide details about what else would be included beyond the advertisements. “We manufacture prescription opioids,” reads one of the ads, a full-page spread in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. “How could we not help fight the prescription and illicit opioid abuse crisis?”

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Metro Nashville Council Passes Resolution Authorizing Mayor Barry to Hire Law Firm to ‘Investigate’ Opioid Lawsuit

Tim Dukeman

As two Tennessee counties prepare lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies that manufacture opioids, a third Tennessee local government appears poised to join the fray: Metropolitan Nashville Government. Tuesday’s Metro Nashville council meeting included a motion to reconsider a days-old resolution authorizing the Mayor to “employ the law firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, as special counsel, on a contingent fee basis, to investigate, and if appropriate, pursue claims against manufacturers and distributors of prescription opioids that have wrongfully caused drug addiction in Davidson County and resulting economic harm to the Metropolitan Government.” The resolution, having already been approved, only had to survive this motion to reconsider. The roll call vote to reconsider the resolution failed, receiving only one vote in support, with 31 votes against. Nashville Public Radio broke the story: “Tennessee counties are joining the list of entities suing pharmaceutical companies over opioids. Smith County is the first to file suit in federal court. Davidson County is likely to follow after approval by the Metro Council Tuesday night.” The resolution makes serious allegations of wrongdoing by pharmaceutical companies, saying: “the interests of the Metropolitan Government require special counsel to investigate, and if appropriate, pursue litigation against manufacturers and distributors…

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Smith County, Tennessee Launches Lawsuit Against Prescription Opioid Manufacturers

Tim Dukeman

Smith County filed a lawsuit Tuesday against prescription opioid manufacturers and distributors. The lawsuit is an effort to recover taxpayer money spent to fight the opioid epidemic and defray costs to the Smith County community. Mark P. Chalos, of the national plaintiffs’ law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, made the announcement on behalf of the county. The lawsuit alleges that the prescription opioid manufacturers violated the law by heralding opioids as safe and medically necessary, despite them being extremely addictive. Further, Smith County charges the manufacturers with concealing the true risks of these jobs, to the detriment of Smith County’s government and its residents. As Business Wire reported: The complaint states that these defendants also conspired to manufacture and distribute millions of doses of highly addictive opioids, knowing that they were being trafficked and used for illicit purposes, and recklessly disregarded their devastating effect on the taxpayers and government of Smith County. As a result of the conspiracy, Smith County taxpayers have spent many hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the opioid crisis and deal with its effects on their community. “What we have seen throughout our region is millions of pills being sold in communities where there aren’t millions of people.…

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Eric Bolling: Son’s Death Ruled ‘Accidental Overdose that Included Opioids’

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The tragic death of Eric Bolling’s 19-year-old son was ruled an “accidental overdose that included opioids,” the former Fox News host said Thursday just hours after President Trump declared the national opioid crisis a public health emergency. The Boulder County coroner’s office in Colorado said Mr. Bolling’s son, Eric Chase Bolling, died of a mix of…

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Kentucky Sheriff Relies on Faith in God in Fighting County’s Drug Epidemic

Wendy Wilson

Bobby Jack Woods doesn’t have an easy job as sheriff of a Kentucky county plagued by drug abuse. What gets him through is his faith in God, reports Kentucky Today, a news outlet of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. A 37-year veteran Kentucky lawman, Woods serves Boyd County at the northeastern edge of the state. Boyd County ranks among the top five in Kentucky in overdose deaths. Statewide, 1,404 people died from overdoses in 2016, a new high. The state has seen rising abuse of heroin and fentanyl, an opioid pain medication. Opioid and heroin addictions are also a growing problem across the nation. “Being a sheriff in Kentucky is a test of faith, and I mean that sincerely,” he said. “You see so much heartache. There are times when you wonder why God lets people suffer or why God let’s people do some of the things they do.” But Woods, a member of a Baptist church in Ashland, said he is grateful that he can also lean on his faith in his grueling line of work. Woods said young people aren’t the only ones getting caught up in drug abuse. A couple in their 70s were recently found dead of overdoses in an…

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