Tag: drug abuse
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Covington police chief: New prescription-drug law has unintended consequence of encouraging pain pill addicts to use heroin, commit crimes
Black tar heroin Kentucky’s new prescription drug law may be having its desired effect of taking prescription painkillers off the streets, but could be forcing those very same addicts into...
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Pill-mill bill causing problems for patients who have long-term prescriptions: expensive drug-screening tests
In July, Kentucky started making long-time holders of certain controlled-substances prescriptions submit to urine tests to determine if they were actually taking the drugs, rather than selling them. Because insurance companies...
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UK study will try to stem high-risk, health-damaging risks in drug-using rural women in Appalachian Kentucky
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have embarked on a five-year study that aims to lower behavioral risks of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C among disadvantaged, rural women in Appalachian Kentucky....
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Pikeville newspaper spotlights local doctors and pharmacists charged in prescription pain-pill epidemic, forecasts more action
The Appalachian News-Express, the thrice-weekly newspaper in Pikeville, has turned the spotlight on Pike County physicians and pharmacists who are aiding and abetting the abuse of prescription painkillers. We have...
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Bath salts, synthetic drugs change too fast for foes to fight
Bath salts, which mimic the effects of drugs like cocaineand speed. The Patriot-News photo by Chris Knight. Though legislators across the country, including Kentucky, have passed laws to ban synthetic...
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Book on Appalachian health gets good review from doctor
A new book discusses the health disparities that affect rural and urban Appalachians and has won the praise of a Kentucky physician, who calls its impact “profound.” Appalachian Health and...
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New form of Oxy is harder to inhale and inject, so drug users are turning to heroin, Opana for high
A new formulation of OxyContin makes it harder to inhale or inject. Drug Enforcement Administration photo. A change in the formulation of the powerful drug OxyContin has addicts turning to another...
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Coventry changes course, will pay for addiction-treatment drug
Reversing its decision, likely after it was pressured to do so, a Medicaid managed-care organization will continue to pay for a drug used to treat drug addiction. Coventry Cares said...
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Medicaid managed-care firm Coventry plans to stop paying for expensive drug that curtails addiction
Coventry Cares, one of the four firms that manage patient care for the state Medicaid program, has once again hit the headlines, this time for its plans to stop paying...
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Meds-for-meth bill drew record lobbying expenses, not even including radio and newspaper ad campaigns
Makers of over-the-counter drugs spent more than any lobbying interest ever had during a single Kentucky legislative session in their effort to defeat a bill requiring prescriptions for the key...