Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Calif. Legislator Proposes Allowing Supervised Facilities For Drug Users
A lawmaker wants to allow California addicts to use heroin, crack and other drugs at supervised facilities to cut down on overdoses, joining several U.S. cities considering establishing the nation's first legal drug-injection sites. The proposal introduced Tuesday comes as San Francisco, Seattle, New York City and Ithaca, New York, weigh ordinances to set up the facilities, citing the success of a site operating in Canada since 2003. (Noon, 4/5)
Earlier KHN coverage: (Bebinger, 3/3)
State officials have reached an agreement with the maker of the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone to receive a $6 rebate for each dose of the drug purchased by a Connecticut government agency. Attorney General George Jepsen wrote to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in September to ask about what he described as a dramatic increase in the price of the drug, which he said occurred as Connecticut and other states were seeking to make it more available to first responders. (Levin Becker, 4/5)
Drug treatment providers in California and elsewhere have relied for decades on abstinence and therapy to treat addicts. In recent years, they鈥檝e turned to medication. Faced with a worsening opiate epidemic and rising numbers of overdose deaths, policymakers are ramping up medication-assisted treatment. President Barack Obama last week said he鈥檇 allocate more money for states to expand access to the medications. He also proposed that physicians be able to prescribe one of the most effective anti-addiction drugs, buprenorphine, to more patients. (Gorman, 4/6)