• Column: Recent research sheds new light on why nicotine is so addictive

    Column: Recent research sheds new light on why nicotine is so addictive

    Sep 30, 2018 08:30 PM EST

    Although our society currently finds itself focused on the tragic epidemic of opioid overdoses, there remains no better example of the deadly power of addiction than nicotine. The measure of a drug’s addictiveness is not how much pleasure (or reward) it causes but how reinforcing it is—that is ...

  • 5 important stories that were lost in last week's news dump

    5 important stories that were lost in last week's news dump

    Sep 18, 2018 08:56 PM EST

    ... become a critical public health crisis in the U.S. -- and much publicized -- over the last few years. More than 40 percent of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription, according to the CDC. Some states are working to counteract liberal prescribing practices. California has had a prescription ...

  • Nearly 30 percent of patients prescribed opioids had no recorded pain diagnoses

    Nearly 30 percent of patients prescribed opioids had no recorded pain diagnoses

    Sep 10, 2018 09:41 PM EST

    During a September 2016 Poynter Institute seminar on opioids in the U.S., Dr. Debra Houry, who directs the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said the United States would reverse skyrocketing rates of opioid misuse and overdose, “if we can stop the tide of people getting ...

  • The next time you go to the principal's office, it could be at your state house

    The next time you go to the principal's office, it could be at your state house

    Sep 04, 2018 08:30 PM EST

    ... and the opioid crisis. Cabarrus County, where Concord is located, has one of the highest incidents of emergency room visits from heroin and prescription drug overdoses in North Carolina. Steele wants beginning teachers to be paid $55,000, which she says the state can afford to do if it reduces ...

  • There's no place like home for Dorothy's stolen ruby slippers, recovered in FBI sting

    There's no place like home for Dorothy's stolen ruby slippers, recovered in FBI sting

    Sep 04, 2018 07:56 PM EST

    ... Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which opened in 1975 in the house where she lived, says it has the world's largest collection ...

  • The Senate could soon pass an opioids package. But a new law is still a long way away

    The Senate could soon pass an opioids package. But a new law is still a long way away

    Sep 01, 2018 08:29 PM EST

    The House bill includes an iteration of “Jessie’s Law,” named for a Michigan woman in recovery from an opioid addiction who overdosed after a post-surgical oxycodone prescription. It would eliminate a restriction that information on past substance use treatment can only be released with patient consent. The charge ...

  • News Wrap: Omarosa airs secret tape of Trump campaign job offer

    News Wrap: Omarosa airs secret tape of Trump campaign job offer

    Aug 16, 2018 10:45 PM EST

    ... in deaths from synthetic opioids.Meanwhile, police in New Haven, Connecticut, are trying to round up a bad batch of synthetic marijuana, after 76 people overdosed within a 24-hour period.  Paramedics started responding to overdoses on Wednesday morning, around a park near Yale University.  No one has died, but ...

  • Elvis' addiction was the perfect prescription for an early death

    Elvis' addiction was the perfect prescription for an early death

    Aug 16, 2018 09:34 PM EST

    ... if the rock star who President Richard Nixon awarded a special badge from the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs had died of a drug overdose? When the toxicology report came back several weeks later, however, Elvis’ blood was found to contain very high levels of the opiates Dilaudid, Percodan ...

  • The year after childbirth is the deadliest for addicted women

    The year after childbirth is the deadliest for addicted women

    Aug 15, 2018 10:13 PM EST

    ... with an opioid addiction, it can be a motivating moment,” said Davida Schiff, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and lead author of the postpartum overdose study. “We should capitalize on the emotions women feel during pregnancy, and sustain their care or enhance it during the postpartum period, which is ...

  • How Catholic churches in Pennsylvania hid decades of abuse

    How Catholic churches in Pennsylvania hid decades of abuse

    Aug 15, 2018 09:27 PM EST

    "During the violent assault, Graff had borne down on Joey's back with such force it had damaged his back," the report said. Joey, later on, became addicted to painkillers after the back injury. Joey wrote the letter before he died of overdose. Graff served as a Catholic Church ...