Tag: drug abuse
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Attorney General Coleman sues Express Scripts for role in opioid crisis
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Attorney General Russell Coleman has sued Express Scripts, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the nation, for what he called the company’s...
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State health department funds mobile syringe exchange for Laurel, Whitley, Knox, Clay and Jackson counties
Five Eastern Kentucky counties will soon have a mobile syringe exchange to minimize the spread of infectious diseases and to help get people who are addicted to drugs into treatment,...
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Young, white, lower-income and lesser-educated men have greatest increase in heroin addiction, study finds
Young, white men with lower education and income levels have experienced the greatest increase in heroin use and addiction, a study has found. Men 25 to 44 accounted for the...
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Medical examiner quits, then stays; was in dispute over resources, autopsy delays, hiring of former legislator to run office
Photo illustration from WKYT-TV Dr. William Ralston quit his job as the state’s chief medical examiner Friday “over frustrations involving personnel decisions and financial concerns for his office,” then agreed...
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More health bills pass as legislative session ends; one would require doctor’s OK to play student athletes after concussions
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Several more health-related legislation passed in the final two days of the General Assembly’s session. House Bill 524, sponsored by Rep. Addia Wuchner, R-Florence,...
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Big drug bill heads to governor’s desk; has harsher penalties and limits most prescriptions for acute pain to 3 days
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News A bill that would limit most painkiller prescriptions to a three-day supply for acute pain, and change how synthetic-opioid traffickers are prosecuted, flew through...
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County Health Rankings show troubling trend of more premature deaths, contrasting trends among some counties
By Danielle Ray Kentucky Health News The premature death rate is getting worse in 44 of Kentucky’s 120 counties and improving in 12 counties, according to a health rankings report released...
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Louisville’s Our Lady of Peace opens first retail pharmacist-operated, long-acting injection clinic; will mostly treat opioid abuse
Insider Louisville photo Kentucky is again leading the nation in finding ways to combat the...
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Kentucky lawmakers have passed several health-related bills to deal with the opioid epidemic, and could pass several more
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. – The 2017 General Assembly has passed several bills meant to put more “tools in the toolbox” as the state works to...
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Nurse practitioners ease doctor shortage, but will have to wait to get more authority to prescribe narcotics; opioid epidemic cited
Nurse practitioner Robin Szczapinski talks with her patient, Harold Brashear Sr., at the Louisville Veterans Affairs Medical Center. (Courier-Journal photo by Maggie Huber) They’re not doctors, but they do a lot...