Free Republic

A troubling trend in Americans’ heart health is emerging, and doctors are aiming to bring more awareness to the problem. While death rates from infective endocarditis have generally declined across the U.S. over the past two decades, they have alarmingly increased among young adults aged 25 to 44. This research, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, underscores a public health issue that intersects with the ongoing opioid crisis. Infective endocarditis, often referred to as bacterial endocarditis, is a rare but serious condition where bacteria enter the bloodstream and infect the heart lining, valves, or blood vessels. It...

Three retail pharmacy chains recklessly distributed vast amounts of pain pills in two Ohio counties, a federal jury said on Tuesday, in a verdict that could set the tone for US city and county governments that want to hold pharmacies accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis. Lake and Trumbull counties blamed pharmacies operated by CVS, Walgreens and Walmart for not stopping the flood of pills that caused hundreds of overdose deaths and cost each of the two counties about $1bn, their attorney said.

Recently, three major drug distributors and one drug maker reached a settlement proposal with attorneys general from a bipartisan coalition of states that would require the companies to pay approximately $26 billion to settle claims over their role in the nation’s opioid epidemic. Commentators have been quick to compare the recently unveiled terms to the 1990s tobacco lawsuit known as the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA). They claim this is the “second-largest cash settlement ever, trailing only [the MSA].” Beyond the obvious of $26 billion being only 10.6 percent of what tobacco companies have paid out, the opioid lawsuit is nothing...

In her time as Pennsylvania’s top health official, Dr. Rachel Levine not only led the Commonwealth through the complexities of an opioid epidemic followed by a global viral epidemic, as a transgender woman she fended off the hateful rhetoric from detractors opposed to not only her progressive-leaning policies but her gender identity. At every turn, Levine stayed focused on the duties of her public office. Now, just a little more than 100 days in office as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health, Levine is leveraging the same steeliness of character in her official capacity at the national level. Levine pays...

'You take rehab.com—our website traffic is up 382 percent in the past 30 days with people looking for treatment for either substance abuse or mental health.' This is a “pandemic within a pandemic,” according to addiction expert Tim Ryan, who’s watched the coronavirus outbreak exacerbate the preexistent opioid and mental health crises with devastating effect. Ryan, the star of A&E’s 2017 “Dope Man” special, is the founder of “A Man In Recovery Foundation,” which partners with Rehab.com. A former heroin addict, his mission is to assist others struggling with substance abuse.In a Friday interview, Ryan explained how the stresses of...

A 13-year-old Oklahoma girl visiting Mexico with her family has been killed in yet another cartel ambush on a long and lonely stretch of highway just south of Falcon Heights, Texas. After nine U.S. citizens were killed in the Mexican border state of Sonora in November, President Donald Trump threatened to label cartels terrorist organizations. When it came to it, however, he holstered the executive pen and backpedaled out of the saloon at the request of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who desires to embrace the cartels with “abrazos no balazos”—hugs not bullets.Now comes word that a 13-year-old Oklahoma...

Washington – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced coordinated actions to bring additional financial pressure upon those who manufacture, sell, or distribute synthetic opioids or their precursor chemicals. OFAC identified Chinese national Fujing Zheng (Zheng) and the Zheng Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) as significant foreign narcotics traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). OFAC also designated one additional Chinese national, Guanghua Zheng, for his support to the Zheng DTO’s drug trafficking activities, as well as one Chinese entity, Qinsheng Pharmaceutical Co....

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Mike Braun (R-IN) are still trying to address the fentanyl and heroin overdose crisis—soon to be joined by a methamphetamine and cocaine overdose crisis—by denying chronic pain patients access to pain relief. They have just introduced a bill they call The FDA Opioid Labeling Accuracy Act, which would “prohibit the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from allowing opioids to be labeled for intended use of ‘around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment’ until a study can be completed on the long-term use of opioids.” Set aside the fact that most pain specialists agree that, in some cases, long-term...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — First lady Melania Trump visited West Virginia on Monday to learn how a city at the center of the nation’s opioid epidemic is grappling with the crisis. She met with federal, state and local officials in Huntington and heard how the area’s police, schools and health care centers are trying to fight the opioid scourge. “I am here to give you my support,” Trump told participants in the roundtable discussion. West Virginia has the country’s highest fatal opioid overdose rate and has struggled, like many other states, to confront the many aspects of the problem. Huntington...

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump met with children and staff members at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio Friday. President Trump made the stop before his speech in Columbus Friday night.Melania Trump posted this on Twitter: A great visit to @Nationwidekids today. #BeBest supports this Administration’s continued efforts in battling the opioid crisis&the effects it has on NAS babies. Thank you to the dedicated team of doctors,researchers&caring staff who work hard daily to carrying out this mission.

Drug trafficking is now the most murderous criminal activity in American history. Overdose deaths from illegal drugs passed 50,000 in 2015 — many times the number of Americans killed by all Islamic terrorists over almost 20 years. Yet stopping the skyrocketing body count will require overcoming a pervasive misunderstanding of how drug abuse and addiction are caused.

As news of Bourdain’s apparent suicide at 61 sent shockwaves across the Internet on Friday morning, many reflected on his early years — a time when Bourdain didn’t know if he was going to be a chef, let alone a household name, author, and culinary inspiration — and his close ties to Massachusetts. He left Cape Cod with restaurant experience and a suntan, and then headed off to culinary school and later, New York. But he also left with something else: An “ever-deepening relationship with recreational drugs.” Throughout the episode, Bourdain switches between his culinary explorations and highlighting the heroin...

Since President Trump took office, and especially so this week, he’s often spoke of the illegal drugs flowing over the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week three teenagers, all Mexico natives, were captured by Customs and Border Patrol as they attempted to traffic lethal drugs. What they had strapped to their bodies could’ve killed thousands of Americans, if not more.

EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio -- Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, and John Lane, chief of police of this small town in Columbiana County, have more in common than you'd think. Both believe that the fight against opioid addiction will require faith-based ministries that can work through peer-to-peer programs, which connect former addicts with current ones. This scourge has ripped through the country. In an interview with me the day after President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to combat the country's opioid epidemic in New Hampshire, Conway said: "It's like anything else. When you look at something, you say, 'Do I...

Is tonight’s dinner giving you heartburn? You’re in luck; there is a pill for that. Do you have high blood pressure? There’s a pill for that, too. How about going bald? Restless legs? Help in bed? Thinning eye lashes? Yes, yes, yes, and…yes – all maladies solved with the help of prescription drugs. In modern medicine today, there seems to be nothing that cannot be cured with prescription or over-the-counter remedies. Simply turn on television during a big game or an evening news program, and you’ll catch the latest drug ad from Astrazeneca, Merck, or Pfizer, hawking a treatment for...

The opioid crisis is a sinister scourge, racking up casualties across every demographic. The harrowing stories of families who’ve watched their children deteriorate and die are far too common. Opioids took the lives of more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “On average, 115 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose.” A full decade of losses at that level would exceed the number of American soldiers killed in World War II.

Federal government has overreached in cracking down on the opioid overdose epidemic. In order to cut off the supply of prescription drugs falling into the wrong hands, new regulations have crippled the ability of our doctors To understand how the government has stepped over the line with their current crackdown on primary healthcare physicians, we must look at how the politicians responded to the opioid crisis when it first reared its ugly head. In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to opioid pain relievers and encouraged healthcare providers to prescribe them...

Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea blames doctors for the opioid crisis as he reveals he was prescribed OxyContin after 20 years clean Flea, the lead bassist for alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, wrote an opinion piece for Time magazine about his struggle with drugs The performer, 55, born Michael Balzary, got clean at age 30 in 1993 In 2015 he was prescribed OxyContin for a snowboarding injury and got hooked He says that the opioid epidemic is caused by doctors over-prescribing strong medicines and failing to follow-up with patients Red Hot Chili Peppers bass guitarist Flea says...

A couple years ago, someone who stole $3.5 million from the government food stamps program was sentenced to...one year in jail. WORCESTER – A federal judge Monday sentenced a local woman to a year in jail and ordered her to forfeit $3.5 million and pay restitution in what lawyers said was the largest food stamp fraud case in Massachusetts history. Vida Ofori Causey, 46, owner of J&W Aseda Plaza at 753 Main St., pleaded guilty in December to charges of conspiracy to commit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits fraud, SNAP fraud, and money laundering in a $3.6 million cash-for-benefits scheme. The...

---SNIP--- while the US tries to deal with its over-use of these powerful medicines, millions of people in other parts of the world are dying in agony because they can't get hold of them. "I remember waking up from my mastectomy in Mexico City. The pain was so severe that I couldn't breathe," says Felicia Knaul, who had her left breast removed several years ago. "It took about 10 minutes before the physicians could come and adjust my pain medication. [It was] not only the agony, but the fear of not wanting to breathe because of the pain." Spurred on...