Feb 16 Health Painful Lessons: Using Data On Overdose Deaths To Combat Opioid Crisis The Ohio Valley’s numbers on the opioid crisis are grim, especially so in West Virginia, which has the nation’s highest rate of overdose deaths. But those numbers could give health workers the ability to identify people at risk of drug overdose and then reach them before they die. That’s what researchers from the West Virginia […] By Aaron Payne Feb 16 Health Painful Lessons: Using Data On Overdose Deaths To Combat Opioid Crisis Aaron Payne
Jan 30 Health Trump Takes Enforcement Approach To Opioid Crisis President Donald Trump addressed the opioid crisis affecting the Ohio Valley region in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night. “We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers if we are going to succeed in stopping this scourge,” he said. “My administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping […] By Aaron Payne Jan 30 Health Trump Takes Enforcement Approach To Opioid Crisis Aaron Payne
Dec 29 Economy $econd Chance: The Economic Case For Drug Treatment Over Jails Imagine living and working somewhere designed to fit a couple hundred people. Now picture that same space crammed with twice that number. Madison County, Kentucky, Jailer Doug Thomas doesn’t have to imagine it. He lives it. “I’m doing all that I can with what I have to work with, which is not a lot,” he […] By Becca Schimmel Dec 29 Economy $econd Chance: The Economic Case For Drug Treatment Over Jails Becca Schimmel
Dec 14 Health Survey Finds Teen Use Of Opioids Declining A survey produced by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found a rare bit of good news about the opioid crisis: fewer teenagers reported using opioids outside of medical purposes. The Monitoring the Future Survey 2017 results show a continued trend in decreased misuse of opioids by teens that dates to the early 2000s. Public […] By Aaron Payne Dec 14 Health Survey Finds Teen Use Of Opioids Declining Aaron Payne
Oct 27 Health Opioid Emergency: How Trump’s Plan Will — And Won’t — Help The Ohio Valley As bad as the opioid epidemic is across the nation, it is even worse here in the Ohio Valley. Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia collectively have a rate of opioid-related deaths that is more than twice the national average. Last year 5,306 people died from opioid overdoses in the three states — 15 deaths a […] By Aaron Payne Oct 27 Health Opioid Emergency: How Trump’s Plan Will — And Won’t — Help The Ohio Valley Aaron Payne
Oct 25 Health Little Regional Coordination As Trump Addresses Opioid Emergency Many lawmakers from the Ohio Valley region are expected at the White House Thursday as President Donald Trump delivers an address on the opioid crisis. It is still not clear when the president will unveil a long-awaited emergency declaration on the epidemic. The president called opioid addiction “an emergency” in early August, and a White […] By Aaron Payne Oct 25 Health Little Regional Coordination As Trump Addresses Opioid Emergency Aaron Payne
Sep 29 Health Opioids On Trial: Can Lawsuits Help Fix The Addiction Crisis? When health care and law enforcement officials met recently at a health policy forum in Lexington, Kentucky, to share ideas about the opioid crisis, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear listed some groups that have benefited from money won in a 2015 settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. “We had Freedom House in Louisville […] By Aaron Payne Sep 29 Health Opioids On Trial: Can Lawsuits Help Fix The Addiction Crisis? Aaron Payne
Sep 29 Health Opioid Lawsuits in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia By Alexandra Kanik Sep 29 Health Opioid Lawsuits in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia Alexandra Kanik
Aug 8 Health Trump Ignores Call For Opioid Emergency: What It Means For The Ohio Valley The Trump administration’s top health official backed away from a presidential commission’s proposal to declare a national public health emergency to address the opioid crisis. An emergency declaration could have big implications for the Ohio Valley, a region with some of the country’s highest addiction and overdose rates. The top recommendation from President Trump’s commission […] By Aaron Payne Aug 8 Health Trump Ignores Call For Opioid Emergency: What It Means For The Ohio Valley Aaron Payne
Aug 4 Health Data Fix: Cities Seek Better Information On Opioid Epidemic Paramedics and police are already in the hotel room when Kyle Simpson walks in. “What happened?” he asks. A 37-year-old man in the room is barely conscious–just revived by the overdose reversal medication NARCAN. Law enforcement officers survey the scene. They’ve found more heroin “rocks” on a table. One officer interviews a crying woman who […] By Aaron Payne Aug 4 Health Data Fix: Cities Seek Better Information On Opioid Epidemic Aaron Payne