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In the United States the number of people hospitalised for prescription drug abuse has increased four hundred percent in the past ten years. The small town of Portsmouth, Ohio is the epicentre of the problem. Over thirty people - many in their early twenties - have died from prescription drug abuse. One in ten babies born in Scioto County (Sy-oh-toe) last year tested positive for drugs. Fatal overdoses have surpassed car crashes as the leading cause of accidental death in Ohio. I met Andrea Queen, a reformed abuser at her new place of work in Portsmouth a clinic helping today's...

WASHINGTON -- The number of prescription drugs in short supply has more than tripled since 2005 and shortages are now more frequent than ever, [] Premier Healthcare Alliance -- a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,500 U.S. hospitals -- surveyed 311 pharmacy experts at hospitals and other facilities, such as surgery centers and long-term care facilities, about shortages during a six month period in 2010. The survey found that 89% had experienced shortages that may have caused a medication safety issue or error in patient care. Eight out of 10 times a shortage occurred, the patient's care was delayed...

A Florida woman was jailed after allegedly assaulting her girlfriend with a feces-filled cat litter box, authorities say. New Port Richey police said Kristin Stiehler allegedly attacked Rachel Switzer Wednesday after Switzer refused to give her Roxicodone pills, the St. Petersburg Times reported Friday. Stiehler allegedly broke through their bedroom door, picked up the litter box and went after Switzer with it. Police said Switzer wound up with cat feces on her face, hair and ears, and cat litter coating her hair, the newspaper said. Switzer alleges she also was slapped and choked by Stiehler. Stiehler was being held without...

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal Wednesday announced an investigation of CVS Caremark’s threat to terminate a consumer discount drug program because the law requires the chain to extend the same discounts to the state’s Medicaid program. Blumenthal, in cooperation with Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) Commissioner Jerry Farrell, Jr., has sent CVS Caremark a subpoena demanding the company explain why providing the discounts to the state Medicaid program would result in termination of its Health Savings Pass program in Connecticut and other information. His actions followed a request from Governor M. Jodi Rell, who last week asked Blumenthal to review...

Congress passed the bill without knowing what was in it. Barack Obama signed it without reading it. Now it looks as though the Associated Press reported on ObamaCare without comprehending its content. Readers will have to scroll far down to discover that the elimination of a key tax break that kept retirees on company prescription-medication plans will mean dumping millions of seniors onto Medicare — and that the AP ignored it until now: The health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how...

White House visitor logs dumped late in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve show that Billy Tauzin, the top lobbyist for the prescription drug industry and once a favorite target of Barack Obama, visited the White House at least 11 times in Obama's first six months in office. The White House's open door for Tauzin, whom candidate Obama attacked as the embodiment of the revolving door and the corrupt collusion between politicians and industry, further dismantles the myth of Obama as the scourge of special interests. It also bolsters the conclusion that health care "reform" has become a...

One more item added to what candidate Obama said on the campaign trail about prescription drugs (see bolded paragraph) and what President Obama who cut a deal with drug companies has to say. No wonder Obama's poll numbers are falling so rapidly as he continues to do a 180 from what he said on the campaign trail. When we first heard about Obama's ties to radicals like Communist Frank Davis who was his mentor, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dohrn, Louis Farrakhan, and others we suspected he would lurch to the left if he was elected. That said, his lurch to the...

Yeah, I know they all break campaign promises, but this has to be among the brassiest, most cynical and craven political lies in decades. As you listen to this promise (it's short, watch the whole thing), is there a single thing that Obama says about crooked, back-room dealing politicians in bed with the pharmaceutical companies that doesn't apply to directly to him this morning?

WASHINGTON (AP) - Some seniors could end up paying 20 percent more for their Medicare prescription drug plans under health care legislation in the House. But overall prescription drug spending would decrease for seniors on average under the bill, the Congressional Budget Office said Friday in a new report. Seniors spending more on prescription drugs would be the ones to benefit under the legislation, while those who spend a relatively small amount on drugs would stand to take a hit, CBO said. The agency did not estimate how many seniors would fall into each category.

Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl split as the U.S. Senate approved a measure Friday that would allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from foreign markets. McCain voted for the measure, which passed 55 to 36. Kyl voted against it, saying he is concerned about safety and oversight issues. The Senate plan needs to be reconciled with a similar drug importation plan from the U.S. House of Representatives. . . . . . The Bush administration had opposed drug imports, but the new Obama administration has been more open to the idea.

Nearly 1,000 deaths were caused in 2008 by the potent painkiller oxycodone -- a 33 percent increase from 2007, the report says. Four years ago, only 340 deaths statewide were attributed to oxycodone, the most popular drug in the black-market pill trade supplied by pain clinics. Conversely, deaths from cocaine overdoses declined by 23 percent, to 648 in 2008. Overall, prescription drugs accounted for 75 percent of the drugs found in overdose victims last year, the report says.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry's agreement to help close a gap in Medicare's drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the nation's health care system. Obama said that drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors and pay for a portion of Obama's health care legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) expressed his frustration with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) Thursday evening for holding up a wide-ranging tobacco regulation bill. McCain has delayed action by insisting on a vote on an amendment to ease the re-importation of prescription drugs from foreign countries such as Canada. Reid claims the amendment is not germane and has resisted giving in to McCain, creating a logjam on the Senate floor. “One senator has held this up and that's the way things can happen around here,” said Reid. “It's unfortunate, but it does happen. “We've worked for a couple of days...

Calif. bill would require Rx for cold pills Tuesday, June 2, 2009 A crime-fighting bill moving through the California Legislature would force patients to get a doctor's prescription to buy a common remedy for stuffy noses. The measure by Sen. Rod Wright, an Inglewood Democrat, would make it an infraction or misdemeanor to obtain ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or related drugs without a prescription. Those are common ingredients in cold medicines, but they're also used to make illegal methamphetamine. Wright says he wants to get them out of drug dealers' hands. But Sen. Sam Aanestad, an oral surgeon and Republican from Grass...

Hackers last week broke into a Virginia state Web site used by pharmacists to track prescription drug abuse. They deleted records on more than 8 million patients and replaced the site's homepage with a ransom note demanding $10 million for the return of the records, according to a posting on Wikileaks.org, an online clearinghouse for leaked documents. Wikileaks reports that the Web site for the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program was defaced last week with a message claiming that the database of prescriptions had been bundled into an encrypted, password-protected file.

Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John McCain (R-AZ), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) introduced critical drug importation legislation today that will reduce the cost of prescription drugs in the United States. The Senators said their legislation, the “Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act,” will bring consumers immediate relief and will ultimately force the pharmaceutical industry to lower drug prices in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill would save American consumers $50 billion over the next decade, including more than $10 billion in federal government savings. The bill allows U.S.-licensed pharmacies...

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ASK the average American about President Bush's health-care legacy and the most likely response is a snort. After all, didn't he refuse to fund medical aid for kids? Hasn't he spent billions on the Iraq war while shorting human needs at home? It's time to look at facts: Mr. Bush's record on health will stand as a great contribution to the well-being of mankind. Take, for example, the doubling of federal funding for community health centers since Mr. Bush took office. These not-for-profit agencies operate in underserved areas and treat people regardless of their ability to pay. According to The...

Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters. Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings. Auchi, born in 1937, is the...

Last update: 3:30 p.m. EDT BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that it has determined that two Indian manufacturing plants operated by Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. are not in compliance due to "serious manufacturing deficiencies." As a result, U.S. border officials may detain any products made at the facilities ... The plants make active ingredients for more than 30 generic drugs. ...