The legalization of recreational marijuana is associated with an increase in its abuse, injury due to overdoses, and car accidents, but does not significantly change health care use overall, according to a study by researchers at UC San Francisco. In a review of more than 28 million hospital records from…
Drug Overdoses Killed 72,000 Americans Last Year: CDC
Drug overdoses rose 10 percent last year, killing an estimated 72,000 Americans, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). More Americans are using opioids, and the drugs are becoming more deadly as fentanyl is increasingly mixed into heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, The New York Times reports. The…
Fentanyl Now Most Common Drug Involved in Fatal Overdoses
Fentanyl and other synthetic opioids have overtaken prescription opioids as the most common drug involved in fatal drug overdoses in the United States, according to a new report. Government researchers found the percentage of fatal overdoses involving synthetic opioids rose from 14 percent in 2010 to 46 percent in 2016,…
Text Messaging Program Could Increase Adherence to Buprenorphine Treatment
Researchers are testing whether a text messaging system can increase patient adherence to buprenorphine treatment for opioid addiction. “We use text messaging in our society for so many things, but for something as critical as opioid treatment, we really didn’t have any text messaging system to support patients,” said lead…
Deaths From Drugs, Alcohol and Suicide Reach New Peaks in Communities of Color
Deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide—known as “deaths of despair”—are increasing among blacks, Latinos and Asians, according to a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust. While drug overdoses were still highest among whites in 2016, there were disproportionately large increases in drug deaths among racial/ethnic…