In the News
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Nationally Recognized Oral Surgeon, Other Experts Inform Doctors and Dentists on Safer Opioid Prescribing
Posted 11/17/2017
EDISON — As a dentist and oral surgeon who has prescribed opioid painkillers throughout his career, Dr. A. Omar Abubaker certainly has a professional interest in the opioid epidemic that now is claiming an average of 175 American lives every day.
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Physicians Become Better Informed on Opioid Prescribing at Do Not Harm Symposium
Posted 11/15/2017
PHILLIPSBURG — Doctors and physicians left St. Luke’s Warren Hospital on Tuesday night with a better understanding of the opioid epidemic gripping the state and their role in addressing it after hearing from experts at the Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey’s (PDFNJ) Do No Harm symposium.
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newsweek.com: WHAT IS KRATOM? FDA CRACKS DOWN ON DEADLY PLANT TOUTED FOR OPIOID WITHDRAWAL
Posted 11/15/2017
Leaves from the kratom tree, which grows in Southeast Asia and is distantly related to coffee plants, have been touted as a potential treatment for opioid withdrawal, among other conditions. However, drugs made from these leaves carry "deadly risks," Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb warned in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
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pressofatlanticcity.com - Our view: Declaration of opioid emergency quickly benefits New Jersey
Posted 11/15/2017
Declaration of opioid emergency quickly benefits New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s fight against the opioid crisis and his chairing of the president’s anti-addiction commission have put New Jersey first in a treatment-access breakthrough.
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app.com: Is the opioid epidemic slowing?
Posted 11/15/2017
Year-over-year drug deaths have fallen in Ocean County by about 25 percent, the first significant decline in years, in what could portend a rare bit of good news in an epidemic that has produced a tidal wave of misery and death across the nation. .
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washingtonpost.com: 44 state attorneys general want repeal of law that curbed DEA powers
Posted 11/15/2017
Forty-four state attorneys general asked Congress on Tuesday to repeal a law that effectively strips the Drug Enforcement Administration of potent weapons against large drug companies that have allowed hundreds of millions of pain pills to spill onto the black market.
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pbs.org: This app tracks drug overdoses in real time
Posted 11/15/2017
In the summer of 2016, drug overdose deaths in Baltimore were exploding and health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen told federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials the city needed real-time data to better manage its public health response.
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cnbc.com: US transportation workers to face testing for prescription opioids next year
Posted 11/15/2017
Safety-sensitive transportation workers — including flight crew, air traffic controllers, truck drivers and train engineers — will be screened for several common opioid painkillers starting next year, according to a new federal rule published Monday.
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statnews.com: Drugstore pain pills as effective as opioids in ER patients
Posted 11/8/2017
CHICAGO — Emergency rooms are where many patients are first introduced to powerful opioid painkillers, but what if doctors offered over-the-counter pills instead? A new study tested that approach on patients with broken bones and sprains and found pain relievers sold as Tylenol and Motrin worked as well as opioids at reducing severe pain.
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patch.com: Opioid Overdose Recovery Program Launched In Somerset County
Posted 11/8/2017
The program at RWJ-Somerset provides recovery support services for those individuals reversed from an opioid overdose with Narcan.