Tag: drug abuse
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As heroin use increases in Kentucky, new report shows its strong connections to abusers of prescription pain medicines
Kentucky’s law-enforcement agences, policymakers and public-health advocates have taken serious measures to curb the state’s rampant prescription drug abuse problem, and recent state and national news stories suggest that the...
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Kentucky expands list of permanent locations for safe disposal of unneeded or expired prescription medications
Gov. Steve Beshear announced today that Kentucky now has 149 permanent prescription drug disposal locations in 97 counties where Kentuckians can safely dispose of unused or expired medications in order...
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Beshear, Stumbo credit law for reducing prescription-drug deaths, but reduction was far outnumbered by rise in heroin fatalities
UPDATE: Final, revised data show that prescription-drug deaths in Kentucky actually increased slightly, from 1,022 in 2011 to 1,031 in 2,012, according to the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center....
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As prescription painkillers become harder to get and abuse, heroin replaces them in Eastern and Southern Kentucky
Heroin use, which has been a problem in Northern and then Central Kentucky after the state began cracking down on prescription painkillers last year, has been spreading to the Southern...
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Prescription drugs killing more women than ever; Kentucky ties for fifth for its high percentage of deaths
The ongoing national epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers is spreading more quickly among women, and it is killing more women than ever before. Kentucky ties Utah for the fifth...
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Kids Count report shows where children in your county and school district rank, in a huge number of measures
Conditions have improved slightly for Kentucky children, especially in education and health, and the state’s overall well-being ranking has gone up one spot, from 35th to 34th in the nation. But...
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Sick of all the bad facts about Kentucky’s health? Here’s encouraging news about oral health and drug treatment
Despite the plethora of bad news about Kentucky’s poor health status, there are many positive initiatives for Kentucky’s oral health and substance abuse treatment, which were stories buried under health...
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At least one in eight teens, and perhaps one in five, have a mental-health issue; ADHD tops, substance abuse also high
The most comprehensive report yet on mental disorders in children shows attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed problem in those aged 3-17, and the most common health...
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Could Medicare Part D be an inadvertent enabler of prescription drug abuse?
UPDATE, Jan. 7: Medicare proposes giving itself authority to ban abusive prescribers, ProPublica reports. By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News An examination of the Medicare Part D program that Congress...