Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amid The Opioid Crisis, California's Teen Overdose Death Rate Fell In 2022
Newly released state data showed 151 teens ages 15 to 19 died from a fentanyl overdose in 2022, down from 230 the year before and 250 in 2020 — a 40% decline in two years, according to preliminary state data updated late last week. (Tucker, 8/9)
On a weekday evening in July, four dozen people sat on folding chairs in a college cafeteria in Berlin. The group included city leaders, local residents, public health workers and others — all touched in some way by the drug epidemic and looking for a way forward. The police chief, Dan Buteau, walked up to a mic. He’s been on the force for two decades, as the opioid crisis has swelled. But last year was the worst he’s ever seen. In this city of 9,000 people, 11 died of overdoses. (Cuno-Booth, 8/9)
A nonprofit naloxone manufacturer is celebrating its recent market approval by giving away 200,000 doses of its over-the-counter nasal spray. Harm Reduction Therapeutics said in a statement that it will donate nearly a quarter-million doses of its new product to the Remedy Alliance, an organization devoted to affordable naloxone access. (Facher, 8/9)
Five months after public health officials warned Angelenos that a dangerous, flesh-eating sedative may have infiltrated the illicit drug supply, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed that it has arrived on the city’s streets. Results from a three-month pilot program showed that just over 4% of seized fentanyl samples tested by the department’s crime lab came back positive for xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that experts say is frequently mixed with illicit opioids to prolong the high. (Blakinger, 8/9)
A now-defunct Ohio drug distributor has agreed to pay no more than about $4 million to settle lawsuits by cities and counties that it contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic, after the state's top court ruled that one of its insurers did not have to cover costs stemming from the cases. The settlement is limited by the funds available from Masters Pharmaceutical Inc's only available insurance policy, through Chubb, according to a Wednesday order by U.S. District Judge Dan Polster in Cleveland halting litigation against the company. (Pierson, 8/9)
