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The U.S. Surgeon General issued a call to action on Thursday to end what he said was a public health crisis of drug and alcohol addiction that is both underappreciated and undertreated. Dr. Vivek Murthy issued the first-ever Surgeon General's report on substance abuse and said he hopes it will galvanize work on the issue the way a similar report 50 years ago sparked decades of effort to combat smoking. (Clarke, 11/16)

“The reason I’m issuing this report is I want to call our country to action around what has become a pressing public health issue,” Murthy said in an interview. “I want our country to understand the magnitude of this crisis. I’m not sure everyone does.” The report, “Facing Addiction,” pulls together the latest information on the health impacts of drug and alcohol misuse, as well as on the issues surrounding treatment and prevention. It offers reasons for optimism despite a still-increasing overdose epidemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans since 2000, and it presents evidence that addiction is a treatable brain disease, with new therapies under development. (Bernstein, 11/16)

The report itself has three basic themes. Addiction is a chronic neurological disease, not a moral failing or lack of will power. That means it’s time to stop the “shame and misunderstanding,” the report says. Prevention is key. Keeping teens in particular from trying drugs and alcohol vastly lowers the likelihood of addiction later on. And treatment works. Not perfectly, but it works. (Kenen, 11/17)

Though little in the report is new, it puts impressive numbers to the problem, and some surprising context: More people use prescription opioids than use tobacco. There are more people with substance abuse disorders than people with cancer. One in five Americans binge drinks. And substance abuse disorders cost the U.S. more than $420 billion a year. (11/17)

Overwhelmed by the opioid crisis, public health agencies across the US and Canada are increasingly training the public to use the overdose antidote drug naloxone. Now, with more potent narcotics hitting the streets, a debate is springing up over whether that’s enough — or whether the public should also be trained to use CPR techniques such as chest compressions or rescue breathing. There’s general consensus that such tactics, done right, could save some overdose victims at a time of sharply rising death tolls. But many public health teams fear that adding another step makes it tougher to train the public and could discourage people from stepping in to help, especially since many are reluctant to perform rescue breathing on an unconscious stranger. (Bigham, 11/16)

The Teamsters union called Tuesday for health-care giant McKesson to take back millions of dollars in incentive pay from chief executive John H. Hammergren, citing damage to the company's reputation caused by its role in the opioid crisis. In a letter, Ken Hall, general secretary and treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, urged the company's board of directors to use its “executive clawback policy to recover all or a significant portion of CEO Hammergren's incentive pay” over the past year and suspend future payouts until it restructures its compensation system. (Bernstein and Higham, 11/15)

LLR Partners, Philadelphia, is leading a $34 million investment in Sun Behavioral Health, a Red Bank (Monmouth County), N.J.-based company that is building a national chain of "freestanding psychiatric hospitals" that treat addictions, LLR said in a statement.  Previous investors NewSpring Capital (of Radnor) and HealthInvest, Petra Capital Partners and SV Life Sciences joined LLR in backing Sun. Sun opened a 148-bed facility in Houston in January, and plans additional hospitals in Georgetown, Del.; Columbus, Ohio; and Cincinnati's Kentucky suburbs.  Sun sees behavioral health and addictions as a "signficant and growing unmet need," CEO Steve Page said in a statement.  "Recent legislation" and has helped make Sun "well-positioned," said LLR vice president Elizabeth Campbell in a statement. (DiStefano, 11/16)