from the quitting-addiction-feels-like-quitting-eating dept.
US House of Representatives passes bipartisan bill to fight opioid crisis
The measure, which passed 396 to 14, is the broadest of dozens of bills on the topic passed by the House over the past two weeks.
[...] Addiction advocates largely praise the measures as good steps forward, but say that much more work and funding is needed to tackle the issue's scale.
[...] The legislation, passed Friday, includes a range of measures to fight the epidemic, including lifting some limits on prescribing Buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid addiction. The bill also requires health-care professionals to write prescriptions for Medicare beneficiaries electronically in order to better track prescriptions and to allow Medicare to cover treatment at addiction treatment clinics.
China says United States domestic opioid market the crux of crisis
China's drug control agency on Monday said the United States should do more to cut its demand for opioids to tackle the use of synthetic drug fentanyl, but it vowed to step up cooperation after Chinese production of the substance had been blamed for fuelling the U.S. opioid crisis.
[...] "China's drug control agencies, now and in the years to come, will place greater emphasis on drug control cooperation between China and the United States," Liu Yuejin, deputy head of China's National Narcotics Commission, told a news conference. "But I believe that to resolve this the more important issue is for the United States to strive to reduce and compress the great demand and drug consumption markets of opioids," he said. While China accepts that some new psychoactive substances, including fentanyl, manufactured in China are sold in the United States, the substances are not yet readily abused and trafficked in China itself, he said.
[...] Beijing has taken steps to crack down on the production and export of synthetic drugs, and has placed fentanyl and 22 other related compounds on its list of controlled substances.
See also: What's in the House's bills to address the opioid crisis — and what's not
It also remains unclear exactly how and when the Senate will craft its own legislation. A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the legislation was a priority but acknowledged the Senate does not have a specific timeline for opioids legislation.
Related Stories
Opioid Deaths May Be Starting To Plateau, HHS Chief Says
The American opioid crisis is far from over, but early data indicate the number of deaths are beginning to level off, according to Alex Azar, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, citing "encouraging" results in overdose trends.
[...] In 2017, the number of Americans dying from opioid overdoses rose to 72,000 from 64,000 the previous year. However, according to new provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control, the numbers stopped rising toward the end of 2017, a trend that has continued into the beginning of this year. It is "finally bending in the right direction," Azar said. He added that the death toll flattening out is "hardly a victory," especially at such high levels. Current government statistics show that opioids kill over 115 Americans each day.
[...] On Wednesday, President Trump is expected to sign a bill recently passed by Congress that expands Medicaid opioid treatment programs and workforce training initiatives, and supports FDA research to find new options for non-opioid pain relief.
It's Too Soon to Celebrate the End of the Opioid Epidemic
While we don't know why deaths have begun to fall, experts say there are a few likely reasons. Doctors are prescribing fewer painkillers. More states are making naloxone, which reverses opioid overdoses, widely available. And it's possible that more addicts have started medication-assisted therapies like buprenorphine, which is how France solved its own opioid epidemic years ago. Indeed, the states with the biggest declines in overdose deaths were those like Vermont that have used evidence-based, comprehensive approaches to tackling opioid addiction.
[...] Still, it's possible this is a "false dawn," as Keith Humphreys, an addiction expert at Stanford University, put it to me. "Opioid-overdose deaths did not increase from 2011 to 2012, and many people declared that the tide was turning. But in 2013, they began racing up again," he said. Deaths from synthetic opioids like fentanyl are still rising, as are those from methamphetamines.
Related: President Trump Declares the Opioid Crisis a National Emergency
U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline Due to Opioid Crisis
"Synthetic Opioids" Now Kill More People than Prescription Opioids in the U.S.
Tens or Hundreds of Billions of Dollars Needed to Combat Opioid Crisis?
U.S. House of Representatives Passes Opioid Legislation; China Will Step Up Cooperation
The Dutch Supply Heroin Addicts With Dope and Get Better Results Than USA
Fentanyl is the deadliest drug in America, CDC confirms
Fentanyl is now the most commonly used drug involved in drug overdoses, according to a new government report. The latest numbers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics say that the rate of drug overdoses involving the synthetic opioid skyrocketed by about 113% each year from 2013 through 2016.
The number of total drug overdoses jumped 54% each year between 2011 and 2016. In 2016, there were 63,632 drug overdose deaths.
[...] In 2016, over 18,000 overdose deaths involved fentanyl, and 16,000 fatalities were due to heroin.
China recently agreed to reclassify fentanyl as a controlled substance to curb sales to the U.S. Will that agreement hold given ongoing trade war tensions?
Also at CBS.
Related: U.S. Life Expectancy Continues to Decline Due to Opioid Crisis
Senate Investigators Google Their Way to $766 Million of Fentanyl
"Synthetic Opioids" Now Kill More People than Prescription Opioids in the U.S.
120 Pounds (54 kg) of Fentanyl Seized in Nebraska
U.S. House of Representatives Passes Opioid Legislation; China Will Step Up Cooperation
The Dutch Supply Heroin Addicts With Dope and Get Better Results Than USA
U.S. Opioid Deaths May be Plateauing
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @10:47PM (17 children)
You'd think they'd be a little bitter after the Opium wars!
Maybe they're more sympathetic to the US since we kicked the crap out of those Redcoats shortly after they wrapped up the last Opium war
(Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday June 28 2018, @11:17PM (15 children)
Well, where to start? A quick history lesson perhaps? [wikipedia.org]
Of course, not long after that the US was helping to invade China, [wikipedia.org] then supported completely the wrong side [wikipedia.org] in their civil war.
Might be a good time to read a history book A/C.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @11:36PM
Might be a good time to appreciate humor, or is this your zombie time so critical thinking is off limits?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 28 2018, @11:38PM (11 children)
Haha woops, that was the page I got my quick reference from and I totally missed it was the 1800s not 1700s! Still, it was just for humor so chill out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @01:38AM (10 children)
...chill out.
Uh oh, a normie found the site.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @01:42AM (9 children)
Take this chill pill (oxycodone).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 29 2018, @01:46AM (8 children)
Get this nasty thing the fuck off of me!
And bring in the WEED. [youtube.com]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 29 2018, @02:24AM (1 child)
You all are scaring me. I think I need to gain refuge in the Skunky, smelly green shit.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @02:26AM
u scared now lol?
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ok-google-give-everybody-in-america-a-free-speaker-2018-06-28 [marketwatch.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @02:32AM (2 children)
Here, get noided (lite) while you get high: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX3rmlHG4XM [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 29 2018, @03:22AM (1 child)
There is only one Noid, and that is the Noid. [wikipedia.org] Suck it!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @03:38AM
Analyzing contents. Searching for hentai...
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @03:23AM (2 children)
I'll second the request for weed.
Your posting style is significantly different this evening. Have you become cannabinoid-fueled instead?
I haven't tried heroin and I don't plan to, but between booze and cannabis, I'd rather have cannabis any day. It helped me quit alcohol (don't even get urges to relapse, which I think is incredible), and I wish congress would get around to legalizing it already if it can also help heroin addicts.
Really it's amazing how many naturally occurring substances there are that can help with addictions. It's criminal that any of them are criminalized!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @03:41AM
LSD 'helps alcoholics to give up drinking' [bbc.com]
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) for alcoholism: meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials [sagepub.com] (DOI: 10.1177/0269881112439253) (DX [doi.org])
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday June 29 2018, @04:02AM
Try heroin. You will become king of the universe. You will know all. At the expense of never being able to leave.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday June 29 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)
"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday July 01 2018, @10:15PM
Of course you're not, because Communists are bad iamirite?
The trouble is, the ordinary Chinese were sick and tired of being exploited by the Kuomintang, who were corrupt and brutal.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday June 28 2018, @11:52PM
There's this gem in TFA:
Maybe we should win our
OpiumOpioid War before engaging in a Trade War with China.[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 29 2018, @12:02AM (2 children)
Can you imagine any single cause where, regardless of the amount of money budgeted, this same response would not be heard?
Just sayin...
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Friday June 29 2018, @12:05AM (1 child)
There are good reasons for that response. Less money was allocated than the Democrats wanted, and last link in TFS shows you some items that were missing from the bills.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 29 2018, @05:23AM
Last link shows only the following things Not in the bill:
No money for more needle exchanges. Nevermind our parks are awash with discarded needles.
Methadone treatment. After decades of badmouthing methadone, claiming it's ever bit as bad as the drug it suppesses, and addicts go to great lengths to avoid it? Now this is the big stumbling block?
Training for first time prescribers. Seriously? They don't know the problem yet? And the Democrats want more money to train doctors?
Mandating insurance cover addictions at the same level they cover physical issues.
That's all they didn't get. And again More Must be Done! Your own link makes a mockery of their claims.
Point remains, if they got all those things, the goalposts would be moved again. If 100% of the federal budget were dedicated to supporting drug users, Democrats would demand tax rises so more free needles and injection sites could be provided.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday June 29 2018, @01:38AM
You'll win the war on drugs THIS time for sure! Cheerio!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 29 2018, @02:56PM
Once upon a time, things Medicine and whatnot was a matter for state governments to address. The federal government had no say whatsoever in how crises would be addressed.
This logic still makes a kind of sense, as healthcare for California is actually different from that of North Dakota. You may have addicts in both places, and chronic pain sufferers in both places, but that doesn't imply that the treatment approaches should be the same in both places.
We still preserve vestiges of this in requiring the states to license physicians, nurses, respiratory technicians, and others.
Then along came Medicare. And Medicaid. And DEA.
And now today your Federal lords and masters will solve this most pernicious problem for you too. You need do nothing - they already have the control of the situation and know best how to deal with it.
You're welcome.