When Legal Drugs Harm and Illegal Drugs Help
From Scientific American: In a day and age when people are increasingly becoming addicted to prescription drugs, and increasingly helped by the therapeutic effects of illicit...
America’s Opioid Crisis Proves the Limits of Capitalism
In this piece for RT, Slavoj Žižek discusses the impact of capitalism on America's opioid crisis, exploring the factors that have driven people to use drugs...
The First Count of Fentanyl Deaths in 2016
From The New York Times: According to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to cover all of 2016, drug overdose deaths increased by...
What We Must Learn From the US Opioid Epidemic
From The BMJ: There is no doubt that America's opioid epidemic is a national crisis that needs to be addressed. However, we must be careful...
Drug Dealers in Lab Coats
From The New York Times: For decades, America has waged an ineffective war on illicit drug dealers and drug lords. However, we have failed to...
The Drug Industry’s Triumph Over the DEA
In this piece for The Washington Post, Scott Higham and Lenny Bernstein investigate how a handful of members of Congress, allied with some of the nation's...
The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis
In this piece for Esquire, Christopher Glazek profiles the Sacklers, the family that owns the pharmaceutical company that manufactures OxyContin. He investigates how the Sacklers' marketing...
The Social Life of Opioids
From Scientific American: Increasing prescription rates of opioid painkillers are often blamed for America's current opioid crisis. However, a growing body of research suggests that...
Companies That Fueled the Opioid Epidemic Should Fund Efforts to End It
The quickest way to restore safe use of opioid prescription is to insist that the drug companies that promoted the overuse of opioids now create a pot of money to develop powerful TV, radio, and print ads, free continuing education offerings, and drug rehabilitation research.
Proove Biosciences Sells Off Assets as CEO Departs
From STAT: Proove Biosciences, which sold dubious DNA tests to predict opioid addiction risk, has been placed into court-ordered receivership for restructuring and asset sale. Experts...
The Real Opioid Emergency
From The New York Times: In recent years, politicians have shown increased awareness of the opioid epidemic and have made statements about the need for treatment,...
Abilify: The Drug That Could Gamble Your Life Away
On this episode of America's Lawyer, Mike Papantonio discusses the numerous lawsuits pending involving the anti-psychotic drug Abilify, which has caused plaintiffs to develop serious...
My Grandmother is a Drug Addict—and I Blame Big Pharma
In this piece for Alternet, Joshua Wilkey discusses his grandmother's addiction to opioid painkillers and details the role that pharmaceutical companies have played in Appalachia's opioid...
There’s Little Evidence Abuse-Deterrent Opioids Work
From STAT: In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has proposed using abuse-deterrent opioids - those that make it more difficult to crush, snort, or inject...
Doctors From Lower-Tier Medical Schools Prescribe More Opioids
From STAT: New research indicates that doctors who graduated from lower-tier medical schools prescribe about three times as many opioid painkillers per year as those...
Seattle-caught Salmon Found to Contain Drugs
From My Science Academy: In a recent study, up to 81 drugs and personal care products were detected in the flesh of salmon caught in Puget...
Powerful Opioid Suspected in 10-year-old Miami Boy’s Death
From STAT: A 10-year-old boy from Miami recently died from a fentanyl overdose, becoming one of the youngest victims of the opioid crisis.
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Why Are So Many People Dying From Opioid Overdoses?
From The Guardian: In a society where unemployment is prevalent and people feel isolated from friends, family, and community, opioid use has become a coping...
Jerome Adams Nominated as New U.S. Surgeon General
From STAT: President Trump has nominated Indiana's health commissioner, Dr. Jerome Adams, to be the next surgeon general. Adams has played a critical role in...
Half of Opioid Prescriptions Go to People With Mood Disorders
From STAT: A recent study found that 51 percent of all opioid prescriptions in the U.S. are written for people diagnosed with anxiety, depression and other...
Why Isn’t Big Pharma Paying for the Harm it Caused?
From Alternet: The pharmaceutical industry has played a major role in causing the opioid crisis by downplaying the potentially addictive and fatal effects of narcotic pain...
Too Many Opioids After Cesarean Delivery
From The New York Times: A new study shows that doctors may be overprescribing opioid pain medication to women who have had cesarean sections.
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Big Pharma Puts the Squeeze on Cities Battling Opiate Crisis
From RevHub: The city of Baltimore is facing an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic. Due to skyrocketing drug prices, the city is running out of funds...
Calling it “Brain Disease” Makes Addiction Harder to Treat
From The Boston Globe: Conceptualizing addiction as a biological brain disease is often ineffective, as the biological model overlooks the important psychological and social factors that...
Tiger Woods Told Officers During Arrest He had Taken Xanax
From STAT: Last month, when Tiger Woods was arrested for driving under the influence, he told officers that he had taken prescription medications including opioid...
