opioids Archives - The Addiction Reporter

Controversial California Dr. Accused of Opioid Negligence

Post author:Melissa
Post published:12/17/2020
Post category:News
Reading time:3 mins read

A doctor in California is at the center of two significant allegations. For the anti-vaccination community, Dr. Tara Zandvliet is said to have provided about 250 exemption letters a year, usually without any medical examinations or even a preexisting condition. The exemption letter would then allow students to go unvaccinated. For people with opioid addiction, all it took was cash to get the medication they needed, alleges the State Medical Board.

Dr. Zandvliet’s Previous Scandal

Dr. Zandvliet is no stranger to scandal or charges of improper conduct in California.

In September of 2020, she was put on probation by the medical board. The probation was supposed to last for three years. She was also no longer allowed to write exemptions for vaccinations of children. The Medical Board said she had written vaccine exemptions in a grossly negligent way.

An investigation into her vaccination exemptions began when health authorities realized …

How Will the Opioids Crisis Response Act Fight Addiction?

Post author:Melissa
Post published:09/17/2018
Post category:News
Reading time:3 mins read

Much to the excitement of addiction recovery advocates and after a time stalled in Congress, lawmakers are finally close to passing a hefty bill to combat opioid abuse. The measure would combine law enforcement and public health measures, and includes initiatives and funding to help make addiction recovery services more accessible to people with opioid use disorder. If passed, the law will be the most comprehensive action to date to deal with the opioid epidemic.

The bill is a rare bipartisan effort in a time where many initiatives have stalled entirely due to the deep political divides in both the House and the Senate. The bill itself stalled in the House of Representatives earlier because Democrats objected to a part of the law that would benefit a group tied to the pharmaceutical industry that helped create the epidemic of addiction that our country faces today.

Finally, a compromise was reached …

Opioid Manufacturers Spent 3 1/2 Times As Much Money on Drs in Canada

Post author:Melissa
Post published:05/21/2018
Post category:News
Reading time:2 mins read

A 2016 report shows that pharmaceutical manufacturers spent 3 ½ times as much money pushing opioids to doctors in Canada. The 2016 report is the only one where numbers are currently available for more than one country.

According to The Star, Purdue Canada, the company that manufactures Oxycontin gave just over $2 million to Canadian health-care professionals in 2016. In the report, the money is flagged as spending for doctors to provide consulting services and deliver speeches on medical topics. In America, it was found that the addresses that the doctors were supposed to have made were sometimes around a dinner table in a fancy restaurant, or in a hotel with a small audience of other doctors.

Purdue Canada gave Canadian doctors a large amount of money. The Star investigation shows that every 1,000 residents, Purdue spent $58 on Canadian doctors compared to $17 in the U.S.

The records …

Kratom Recall Due to Salmonella Expands Nationwide

Post author:Melissa
Post published:03/20/2018
Post category:News
Reading time:3 mins read

Recently, the Centers for Disease Control notified the public that a salmonella outbreak caused by Kratom had prompted a recall of the product. Kratom products sold under brand names including Botany Bay, Enhance Your Life and Divinity by Divinity Products Distribution are all part of the voluntary recall. Kratom is often touted as an opioid substitute that can help people with a variety of issues, from addiction and chronic pain to anxiety and inflammation. The supplement, which is currently legal, is a plant native to southeast Asia that has become more popular in recent years due to its easy availability on the internet.

The Oregon Health Authority asked people to stop using kratom last week when testing found salmonella bacteria in several product samples. Four people in Oregon have already gotten sick from the bad batches they consumed.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a “voluntary destruction and recall” for …

Fake Street Pills Made With Deadly Opiates Now Common

Post author:Melissa
Post published:11/08/2017
Post category:News
Reading time:3 mins read

People addicted to Oxycontin often resort to desperate measures, including buying their pills on the street. Unfortunately, addicted persons who buy these pills are discovering that they’re fake street pills. They are now being linked to carfentanil and cyclopropyl fentanyl overdoses in New Jersey and across the country. New Jersey is just one of many states that has experienced deadly incidents of street pills – typically sold as Oxycontin or Hydrocodone — giving their users more than they bargained for.

Luckily, in Holmdel and Long Branch New Jersey, investigators were able to seize the pills before anyone got hurt – as far as they know, anyway. (It takes months for a state Bureau of investigation to tally the figures that include deaths from any illicit drugs.) The seizure was made last week, and the oxycodone pills were found to not contain oxycodone at all. In fact, they contained carfentanil, a …

Opioids and the War Against Drugs in America – 20 Years Later

Post author:Michael
Post published:08/01/2012
Post category:Uncategorized
Reading time:3 mins read

The highly under-published problem of opioid prescription drug abuse actually is one of the main causes of our ongoing drug war. This drug war is currently being waged locally and nearby is reaching fever pitches in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.

Opioid painkillers are a class of psychoactive substances that are mainly used for pain management and include codeine, hydrocodone, and oxycodone (among others).

Today, the extreme consumption of prescription opioids greatly surpasses that of any of our previous drug crises by all measures and accounts, including heroin in the 1960s and 1970s, and crack cocaine in the 1980s and 1990s.…