Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Immigrant Families And The Opioid Crisis: In America 'The Only Village Taking Care Of Your Kids Is The Street'
The country鈥檚 epidemic abuse of opioids 鈥 heroin, or prescription pills 鈥 is often seen as an affliction of white suburban and rural communities, but it has also spread to New York City鈥檚 immigrant neighborhoods. There is no city data that breaks down drug abuse by ethnicity, but anecdotal evidence suggests that it is emerging or even worsening where it already has a foothold. Experts and those enmeshed in the fight against drugs see many possible explanations. Immigrant parents are often unfamiliar with the signs of drug abuse and may not know how to navigate the world of treatment and recovery. Immigrant families, steeped in traditions, can also have an especially strong culture of shame around addiction that discourages asking for help. (Robbins, 7/21)
Elsewhere, Montana patients with chronic pain take desperate measures to get medication under tight opioid regulations and St. Louis gets federal money to set up a聽prescription drug monitoring database聽鈥
Federal authorities say about 78 Americans die every day from opioid overdose. In Montana, health care officials report that abuse there is worse than the national average. But the casualties of the opioid epidemic are not all drug abusers. On a recent night, three Montana residents, who call themselves pain refugees, boarded an airplane from Missoula to Los Angeles. They say that finding doctors willing to treat chronic pain in Montana is almost impossible, and the only way they can get relief is to fly out of state. (Cates-Carney, 7/22)
St. Louis County could receive federal funds to establish a regional prescription drug monitoring database, under a new law passed by Congress that President Barack Obama has said he will sign. The measure allows for local governments, not just states, to apply for federal grants to set up a database to alert physicians when a patient may be receiving too many opioid prescriptions. (Bouscaren, 7/21)
Meanwhile, drug overdoses test the resources of ER departments 鈥
Emergency departments ... are on the front line in the medical response to K2, a drug-laced herbal mixture that has no antidote and is often labeled as potpourri or incense to mask its illicit purpose. K2 is cheaper than cocaine, heroin or marijuana, and its ever-shifting chemical makeup has defied regulators鈥 efforts to control it. Last week, 130 people suspected to be on the drug, which is often referred to as 鈥渟pice鈥 and sometimes erroneously marketed as legal marijuana, were brought to emergency rooms across New York City, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (Furfaro, 7/21)
