It might seem like an odd concept: using drugs to gain control over drug use. But especially for people addicted to opioids such as heroin or prescription painkillers, medication-assisted treatment with drugs such as Suboxone (a mix of buprenorphine and naloxone) or methadone can save lives.
After New Jersey’s law protecting first responders who administer the opioid overdose antidote Narcan was signed into law in March, a free training program is helping ordinary citizens learn to administer the drug and save lives, as well as shining a spotlight on the issue of addiction.
After three overdose deaths in just two days in Lynn, Massachusetts, Sen. Edward J. Markey has proposed federal legislation to protect “good Samaritans” who use the overdose antidote Narcan. The move may have been taken in response to the recent deaths, but rising overdose deaths have long been a problem across the U.S., and many […]
The latest analysis of U.S. heroin trends can be summed up in one discouraging word: more. More heroin use, more populations using heroin, more use of other drugs alongside heroin, and more people — many more — dying.
In 2014, $25.4 billion was set aside to continue fighting the war on drugs in the U.S., with over $14.7 billion going to domestic and international law enforcement, as well as efforts to intercept trafficking. The big problem is that these efforts are nothing new, and the problem hasn’t gone away. In an investigative series, […]
From the early days of opium to the modern age of prescription painkillers, people and opiates have had a long and tumultuous relationship. Although prescription drug abuse is one of the main health concerns in modern-day America, the rise in abuse of drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin is fueling another epidemic: addiction to heroin. In […]
Since 2007, the number of people in the U.S. who use the addictive opioid drug heroin has nearly doubled. Not surprisingly, this spike in heroin users has been accompanied by a rise in the number of people who experience heroin overdoses. In a study scheduled for publication in 2014 in the journal Addiction, a team […]
The Food and Drug Administration has fast-tracked a nasal spray application of naloxone, a highly effective medicine that helps save the lives of addicts in the midst of a heroin overdose. Faced with an alarming rise in the abuse of opiates such as heroin and prescription painkillers, the FDA moved to accelerate the approval process of […]
One of the many dangers associated with purchasing and using illegal street drugs is that it is difficult to know for certain what is in them. Many drugs have unintentional impurities acquired during the manufacturing process, which can lead to a var
It has been proven time after time that alcoholism and drug addiction are amenable to treatment. Each year, millions of Americans celebrate another anniversary of sobriety, surrounded by grateful family members who remember the agony and misery of days gone by. But while the success stories are uplifting, the failures are disheartening; unfortunately, the latter […]
Documentary-style projects ordinarily have their focus firmly on somebody else, offering an insight into the individual’s life from the perspective of a third-party filmmaker. If the filmmaker ensures the individual is comfortable enough, it allows painfully real moments to be immortalized on screen and offers the audience an in-depth look into a new issue. But […]
Small cash incentives can dramatically increase the likelihood of people who inject drugs completing a course of hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination, according to new research led by King’s College London. Hepatitis B is an illness caused by the highly infectious hepatitis B virus. In most people, the disease is acute, with serious symptoms that last […]
With stunning speed, on Thursday the FDA approved an injection device designed to deliver naloxone — a drug that can reverse an opioid overdose — for use in the home and other non-hospital settings. The approval comes after a four-month, fast-track priority review, and may represent a tipping point in how heroin and prescription opioid addiction […]
Intravenous heroin users rely on a needle and syringe to inject the powerful opioid narcotic heroin directly into the bloodstream. In addition to the risks for drug addiction common to all people who take the drug, IV users have increased risks for serious or fatal bloodborne infections such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. In a […]
U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric Holder this week declared rising heroin and opioid overdose deaths “an urgent and public health crisis” and vowed renewed enforcement and treatment efforts. In a five-minute televised video, the nation’s top cop referred to the 45 percent increase from 2004 to 2010 in the fatal overdoses from heroin and other opiates found […]
The family’s first-born son was away at college when he became a heroin addict. He was 21 and in the throes of detox at a long-term residential treatment center when his parents learned this sobering news: their medical insurance would not pay the $8,000 bill. “I used the savings bonds I inherited from my grandma […]
Taken alone, narcotics are deadly enough, but when an addict starts mixing drugs, it gets even riskier. Deaths from mixed drug overdoses date back decades — famously “The Wizard of Oz” star Judy Garland and American icon Elvis Presley. They should serve as cautionary tales, but the addict does not think rationally. A recent string […]
ABC’s “World News with Diane Sawyer” recently spoke with Promises Treatment Centers’ director of Professionals Health Services Dr. Greg Skipper about the growing use of heroin in the U.S. Nearly 670,000 Americans use heroin, according to a report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, double the rate just five years ago.
Dr. Greg Skipper of Promises Treatment Centers this week told Jim Thornton and Diane Thompson of KNX Radio that the incredible potency of the heroin found on the streets today can be a fatal threat to anyone addicted to opiates. Dr. Skipper, a fellow of the American Board of Addiction Medicine and Director of Professionals […]
Heroin is a dangerous drug that wreaks havocs on the lives of those who use it. It is highly addictive, easy to overdose on, increases the risk of contracting contagious diseases like HIV, and, like other types of drugs, can destroy relationships and lives.
Massachusetts police have seized 1,250 bags of heroin that were curiously labeled “Obamacare” and “Kurt Cobain,” the latter making only a bit more sense because the late rocker was found to be on large quantities of the drug when he killed himself.
You’re made to lie down on the sterile medical bed with your buttocks exposed, and advised—helpfully—to grip the bed to help you cope with the pain. Then you receive 30 lashes with a willow branch—right across the backside—enough to leave a mark, but not enough to draw blood or cause lasting damage. You’d be forgiven […]
There is a relatively new treatment for addiction on the market. It isn’t a new type of therapy or a variation of a 12-step program and it isn’t a replacement for a drug, like methadone, which acts as a replacement for heroin. The new drug, called Vivitrol, is an injection that prevents addicts from getting […]
A huge cache of a new lethal street drug was discovered in Montreal, making people aware of this dangerous substance. It’s called desmethyl fentanyl, and Montreal police seized over 300,000 tablets of it in April. Not only is this new drug deadly, like other very harmful street substances like crystal meth, it is made by […]
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