Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Families Scramble To Find Good Treatment Programs During Opioid Epidemic, Addiction Specialists Offer Guidelines
Fact is, more than a decade into a nationwide epidemic, many physicians in the United States may not know where to send people with an opioid addiction. So the addiction that killed more than 130 people a day in 2017 has families turning to the only people who they think know what to do: Each other. (DeMio, 1/23)
Kaiser Health News: Students With Addictions Immersed In The Sober Life At 鈥楻ecovery鈥 High Schools
It鈥檚 the last class period of the day. The students lean back on couches and take turns describing the most important day of their lives: the day they became sober. For Marques Martinez, that date was Nov. 15, 2016. Until then, he had used OxyContin, Xanax and nearly every other drug he could get his hands on, he said. He had been suspended from school for selling drugs. 鈥淚 knew what I was doing was bad,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut I didn鈥檛 think there was another way.鈥 (Gorman, 1/24)
Kaiser Health News: Listen: 鈥楧eath Certificate Project鈥 Aims At Opioid Crisis, But Doctors Cry Foul
On 鈥淎ll Things Considered鈥 Thursday, KQED鈥檚 April Dembosky reports on聽the California medical board鈥檚聽Death Certificate Project,聽which collected almost 3,000 death certificates of people who died of opioid overdoses, then cross-referenced those with the state鈥檚 drug prescription database. The board then sent letters to more than 500 doctors throughout the state who had prescribed the drugs to the people who died. The board has filed formal charges against 25 doctors, and left hundreds more, like聽Dr. Ako Jacintho of San Francisco, waiting to learn their fate. (Dembosky, 1/23)