Indiana going to court in opioid battle

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Feb 11, 2018 Updated 9 hrs ago

Indiana communities, struggling under the weight of an opioid crisis, are increasingly turning to the courts to hold drugmakers and distributors accountable for their role in the plight.

The latest is Marshall County, where overdose deaths went from one in 2015 to 16 in 2017. The county filed a lawsuit in federal court two weeks ago, accusing more than 20 companies of deceptive practices that contributed to the opioid crisis.

It joins a list of more than a dozen Hoosier cities and counties — including Indianapolis, Lafayette, Bloomington, Fort Wayne and Harrison, as well as Vigo and Jennings counties — that have filed lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors. Among other things, the lawsuits claim that manufacturers have aggressively advertised to and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive painkillers. The lawsuits aim to offset the financial costs needed to combat the consequences of the drug epidemic.

Last week brought news that the St. Joseph County commissioners also plan to proceed with a civil lawsuit against drug companies, accusing them of deceptive marketing practices that have contributed to the county’s opioid crisis. In St. Joseph County, there were 59 overdose-related deaths in 2015, 60 in 2016 and 57 in 2017, according to the Indiana Department of Health ...

https://www.southbendtribune.com/news/opinion/our_opinion/our-opinion-indiana-going-to-court-in-opioid-battle/article_64d5f01b-3859-53ed-a857-dd5a4df10fe5.html

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1. OxyContin maker to stop promoting opioids

11 February 2018 — 11:48am

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP said that it has cut its sales force in half and will stop promoting opioids to doctors following widespread criticism of the ways that drugmakers market addictive painkillers.

The drugmaker said it will inform doctors on Monday that its sales representatives will no longer visit their offices to discuss its opioid products. It will now have about 200 sales representatives, Purdue said.

"We have restructured and significantly reduced our commercial operation and will no longer be promoting opioids to prescribers," the Stamford, Connecticut-based company said in a statement ...

https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/oxycontin-maker-to-stop-promoting-opioids-to-doctors-20180211-p4yzxt.html

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2. Fairfax County approach to opioid crisis

By Kathy Stewart
February 11, 2018 4:30 am

... In response to the national opioid epidemic, inmates at the Fairfax County jail who want to learn are being taught how and when to administer the fast-acting opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone.
Marissa Farina-Morse with the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) said that for the past two months they’ve been offering the training to inmates at the county’s Adult Detention Center.

“We serve many individuals here at the Adult Detention Center who may have an opiate issue themselves or who might have friends and loved ones (who have opiate issues).”

The CSB provides services to individuals with mental health, substance abuse and intellectual disability needs in Fairfax County ...

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2018/02/fairfax-county-takes-unusual-approach-fighting-opioid-crisis/

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3. Treating opioid addiction

By Koby Levin
Feb 10, 2018 Updated 1 hr ago

... experts say the best weapon in the fight against the opioid epidemic is ... opioids.

Prescription medications such as methadone and buprenorphine (marketed as Suboxone) limit patients’ cravings and the symptoms of withdrawal. Although the medications belong to the same chemical family as widely abused prescription painkillers such as hydrocodone, they don’t yield the same euphoric high, and they are subject to especially strict prescription rules.

"It is a life-saving medication," said Nauman Ashraf, an addiction psychiatrist with Freeman Health System. He says it allows patients to focus on improving their health instead of grappling with a vicious cycle of addiction and withdrawal, especially if they have just stopped using the drugs.

"Using, recovering, detoxing, getting in trouble with the law, contracting diseases — all that is gone. We give them medication so they don’t have to worry about it," Ashraf said ...

http://www.joplinglobe.com/news/local_news/buprenorphine-a-gold-standard-for-treating-opioid-addiction/article_6629688a-e08c-5b12-b345-5cf65c457e46.html

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4. Opioid epidemic costs WV $8.8B a year

ERIC EYRE
Charleston Gazette-Mail
February 11, 2018

... A recent West Virginia University study found that the epidemic caused a void in the state’s economy of nearly $1 billion. That study estimated $322 million in lost productivity because of overdose fatalities, another $316 million in lost productivity because of the large number of addicts who weren’t working at peak level, and more than $320 million tied up dealing with the opioid epidemic. WVU’s analysis, unlike AEI’s study, did not include the value of the loss of life.

In 2012, then-state Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed lawsuits against more than a dozen drug wholesalers, accusing the companies of fueling West Virginia’s drug problem by shipping an excessive number of pain pills to the state. The lawsuit alleged that the drug problem cost the state $430 million a year, and projected that those costs would rise to $695 million by 2017.

During the past two years, the distributors settled the lawsuits with the state for a combined $44 million, while admitting no wrongdoing.

Since January 2017, dozens of towns, cities and counties in West Virginia have filed lawsuits against drug wholesalers and manufacturers, seeking to recoup costs related to the opioid epidemic. Those cases have been consolidated with similar lawsuits filed in other states. A federal judge in Cleveland is overseeing the litigation ...

http://www.journal-news.net/news/local-news/2018/02/study-opioid-epidemic-costs-state-8-8b-a-year/

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5. Fighting the epidemic by understanding it

Sunday, February 11, 2018 1:30am
By Mark Beatty

... data is critical to the goals and objectives laid out by our multi-agency response group. It allows us to determine the true size of the problem, specifically the number of people afflicted with this disease, so we can ensure the proper location and amount of services are available to meet the need. Data will also help us to target our interventions across agencies, as well as hone the information needed to educate and prevent further addiction.

Just as a physician would do with any other disease, we need to fully assess the patient and his or her particular condition. A diagnosis should be followed with a customized treatment plan that can be targeted to achieve the best possible outcomes. This includes gathering information about personal and environmental factors to identify any barriers to receiving treatment. Finally, there are check-ups and testing done to confirm the treatment plan is working.

Unfortunately, up until recently, we’ve only been able to provide statistics on lives lost due to an opioid overdose. Then there was the added ability to track lives saved by law enforcement and first responders through the use of Naloxone. Even then, all of the data was "stale." It could take up to 18 months to see if we were doing better or worse ...

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/commentary-fighting-the-opioid-epidemic-by-understanding-it/

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6. Crisis targeted from multiple angles

... The Georgia Senate passed a bill last week that would create greater protections for consumers and advance research and educational pursuits targeting addiction.

One portion of the opioid bill would create a “director of substance abuse, addiction and related disorders” who would be appointed by the governor to oversee a 15-member commission on substance abuse and recovery.

The commission’s tasks would include coordinating overdose data, consulting with other state agencies, providing recommendations on a potential Medicaid waiver for opioid abuse, creating a block grant program, developing education plans and expanding access to "appropriate prevention, treatment and recovery support services."

Another section would increase penalties for people offering kickbacks between health care providers and treatment centers, referred to as "patient brokers" ...

https://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/opioid-addiction-crisis-targeted-multiple-angles/

[Ohiogal]

7. Remember when

Asshole Pence refused to fund a needle exchange program when people were dying every day in Indiana. Finally got talked into it but it was too little too late?

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8. Hearing postponed for doctor in opioid kickback scheme

Feb 7, 2018 Updated Feb 7, 2018 (0)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A hearing to help determine the sentence for a doctor who pleaded guilty to accepting money for prescribing a highly addictive opioid spray in exchange for kickbacks is being rescheduled ... at his attorney's request.

Prosecutors say Rosenberg bullied patients who complained about the effects of the fentanyl spray Subsys, telling one to "stop crying, you're acting like a child." He got $188,000 in kickbacks.

Two patients survived after overdosing.

http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/hearing-is-postponed-for-doctor-in-a-opioid-kickback-scheme/article_60596c93-ee76-5d7a-84b7-7ca93172face.html

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9. Physician convicted in drug trafficking

By staff report
Posted Jan 28, 2018 at 10:48 AM
Updated Jan 30, 2018 at 4:12 PM

... A Jackson County jury .. found David Arthur Flick guilty of two counts of conspiracy to traffic in oxycodone, one count of conspiracy to traffic in hydrocodone, and six counts of principal to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

Testimony detailed a nine-month scheme in which Flick, from his Marianna home, would write "patients" prescriptions for controlled substances in exchange for cash or the recruitment of other patients ...

According to court records, Flick, his live-in girlfriend and others "actively recruited individuals, predominantly opioid addicts from the Bay County area, to travel to his Marianna residence to pay $175-$300 in exchange for receiving prescriptions for a variety of substances to include hydrocodone, oxycodone, Xanax, valium, Ativan, Ambien, Subutex and methadone. Other co-conspirators were encouraged by David Flick to take half of the pills once the controlled substance prescription was filled in exchange for the introduction to the doctor or in exchange for the ride to his residence in Marianna from Bay County" ...

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/20180128/49896-pills-physician-convicted-in-drug-trafficking-conspiracy