Tag: narcotics
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Super-powerful narcotics threaten even more fatal drug overdoses in region; six in Danville area spur community action
“If you’re putting a needle in your arm, you’re playing Russian roulette,” because so many super-powerful narcotics such as fentanyl are in the illegal drug trade, Dr. Eric Guerrant, emergency...
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State health officials warn of looming ‘public health crisis from dangerous drugs,’ including heroin laced with potent Fentanyl
Kentucky health officials are warning that a “public health crisis involving dangerous drugs” looms over the state, and could hit this weekend, the Department for Public Health said in a...
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Heroin arrests and treatment are up in Appalachia, enlarging threat of HIV and hepatitis C outbreaks from unclean needles
Partly because it’s much cheaper than pain pills, heroin is “quickly making inroads in Southern and Eastern Kentucky,” the head of an anti-drug organization told Laura Ungar of The Courier-Journal....
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Sharing syringes isn’t like sharing a bottle or a joint; it could lead to HIV or hepatitis outbreaks, and Kentucky is most vulnerable
Map from The Guardian highlights Wolfe County. Amanda Holpuch of The Guardian took a trip to Wolfe County, perhaps the U.S. county most vulnerable to an outbreak of HIV or...
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Latest sign of IV drug spread: Hepatitis C cases among Kentucky women of childbearing age more than tripled from 2011 to 2014
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chart shows hepatitis C rates for Kentucky and U.S. Hepatitis C among Kentucky women of childbearing age more than tripled from 2011 to 2014,...
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Study finds no link between tighter controls on prescription opioids and increased use of heroin; some researchers disagree
National overdose-death rates for heroin (red) and prescription opioids (blue) By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Soon after Kentucky cracked down on “pill mills” where prescription painkillers were easily available,...
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Senate passes addiction-treatment bill without extra funding Democrats wanted; Obama says he will sign it
Sen. Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan, far right, spokeat an enrollment ceremony to send the bill to President Obama. The Senate passed and sent to President Obama on Wednesday...
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Northern Ky. doctor who treats 300 addicts says many doctors don’t treat them because it’s not easy and often frustrating
“The sooner everyone understands that addiction needs to be treated as a disease, the sooner communities will make progress in battling the problem.” So says Dr. Mike Kalfas of Northern...
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Dangers of HIV and hepatitis from intravenous drug use reach far beyond addicts and families, threatening a wide swath of Ky.
The growing use of heroin and the abuse of prescription painkillers in Kentucky also mean that the state “is being ravaged by the diseases that follow in their wake: hepatitis...
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Painkillers appear to increase risk of deaths other than overdoses, according to new study of Medicaid patients in Tennessee
“Accidental overdoses aren’t the only deadly risk from using powerful prescription painkillers,” The Associated Press reports. “The drugs may also contribute to heart-related deaths and other fatalities, new research suggests.”...