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Tech NewsDOJ Accuses Walmart of Perpetuating the Opioid Crisis by Looking the Other Way
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, the Department of Justice accused Walmart of being a reckless drug peddler who put profits over the nation’s health and said the retail giant was a key player in the opioid crisis that resulted in 50,000 overdoses in 2019 alone. According to the complaint, Walmart failed to follow the … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
ScienceHealthDOJ Lets Opioid Ghouls at Purdue Pharma Off With a Slap on the Wrist
The “Empire of Pain” and the family that profited from it scored a sick joke of a settlement with the Department of Justice on Wednesday, evading accountability for their role in the nationwide opioid epidemic. The manufacturer of the synthetic opioid OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, agreed to pay $8 billion in a settlement with the DOJ … Continued
By Tom McKay -
ScienceHealthThe U.S. Had a Record Number of Overdose Deaths Last Year
The covid-19 pandemic isn’t the only public health crisis the U.S. is currently dealing with, as new government data released this week illustrates. In 2019, there were nearly 71,000 deaths attributed to drug overdose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the highest yearly number to date. And it’s looking like this year … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthLet People Take Home Their Methadone
The covid-19 pandemic is turning daily pick-ups into an acute public health crisis. There’s a better way. More than a week after President Donald Trump announced that public gatherings should be limited to no more than 10 people, a line was growing outside a methadone clinic in SoHo. More than two dozen people, some of … Continued
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Tech NewsFaux-Pork, Feral Camels, Police Dogs, and Sex Tech: Best Gizmodo Stories of the Week
This week saw the comings and goings of another Consumer Electronics Show along with every oddity and wonder we’ve grown to expect therein. Amid checking out the event’s scores of other gadgets, Gizmodo’s folks on the floor got to build a vibrator, munch on some I-Can’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Pork, and scratch their heads over the future of Hollywood heavyweight … Continued
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Tech NewsWhy Did the Pentagon Push the FDA to Approve a Powerful New Opioid?
In November 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved America’s newest opioid, a formulation of sufentanil called Dsuvia. Sufentanil is the strongest prescription painkiller available—five to 10 times more potent than its parent drug fentanyl, which is in turn 30-50 times more potent than heroin. The outcry over Dsuvia—its potency, its potential for abuse—was immediate. … Continued
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ScienceHealthNY Governor’s Veto Outrages Activists Fighting for Medicaid Patients Who Need Opioid Addiction Treatment
Activists and lawmakers in New York are furious over a New Year’s Eve decision by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to veto a bill intended to make it easier for low income residents on Medicaid to access medication-based treatment for opioid addiction—while signing a similar bill that does expand access to these medications for people on … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthAmericans’ Life Expectancy Problem Goes Back Decades
A new study this week highlights a unique, long-spanning crisis among Americans. For decades, it suggests, the U.S. life expectancy has lagged behind similar countries. And for close to a decade, young to middle aged Americans have actually been dying more than in previous years, thanks in part to worsening rates of suicide, drug overdoses, … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthJudge Rules That Supervised Injection Site Planned in Philly Is Legal
On Wednesday, a federal judge struck down the U.S. government’s attempt to stop the development of the country’s first supervised injection site in Philadelphia—a move heralded by many public health experts worried about the opioid and drug overdose crisis. Supervised, or safe, injection sites are public spaces where people are given the opportunity to use … Continued
By Ed Cara -
Tech NewsDrug Company That Makes OxyContin Files For Bankruptcy to Stop Lawsuits Over Opioid Crisis
Purdue Pharma, the drug company that makes the controversial pain medication OxyContin, filed for bankruptcy protection late Sunday night. The bankruptcy filing will temporarily halt thousands of lawsuits against Purdue alleging that it made billions of dollars while helping to create America’s opioid epidemic which has killed over 400,000 people since 1999. The bankruptcy news, … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHealthOpioid Ghouls at Purdue Pharma Reach Tentative Settlement Worth Billions
Purdue Pharma, the Oxycontin manufacturer that largely fueled the opioid crisis, reached a tentative settlement with attorneys representing municipalities, states, and tribes across the country, according to reports from the Washington Post and New York Times. Purdue’s deceptive and aggressive marketing of Oxycontin led to a rapid increase in opioid abuse since the late 1990s. … Continued
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ScienceHealthWho Gets the Money From the Big Pharma Opioid Lawsuits?
On Monday, an Oklahoma judge found Johnson & Johnson culpable for having sparked growing rates of opioid misuse and overdose deaths in the state, ordering the company to pay out $572.1 million in damages. The verdict will likely be appealed by the pharmaceutical giant, but it nonetheless represents the first major state case won against … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthA Nurse’s Alleged Opioid Theft Led to a Blood Infection Outbreak at a New York Hospital
An outbreak of a rare infection at a western New York hospital in 2018 was sparked by a nurse’s opioid use disorder, a new case report out Thursday seems to confirm. The nurse is alleged to have taken intravenous opioid painkillers for her own personal use, replacing the fluid she took with water—water that turned … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthCDC Calls for Millions More Naloxone Prescriptions to Reverse Opioid Overdoses Across the U.S.
There have been few glimmers of hope when it comes to the opioid crisis. But a new report this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that many more people are now getting access to the opioid overdose antidote naloxone—and that may have helped slightly reduce the number of opioid-related deaths in … Continued
By Ed Cara -
Tech NewsFormer Drug Company Execs, Pharmacists Arrested for Allegedly Flooding Small Towns With Opioids
Federal officials have indicted two former executives at the pharmaceutical wholesaler Miami-Luken for allegedly distributing millions of opioid pills illegally in rural Appalachia. Two pharmacists have also been charged, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio. Miami-Luken supplied opiate painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone to over 200 … Continued
By Matt Novak -
ScienceHealthKratom Linked to Serious Side Effects and Deaths in New Study
The herbal remedy kratom, often touted as an alternative treatment for opioid withdrawal or chronic pain, is in for more bad publicity. This week, scientists published yet more research showing that the plant is linked to reported dangerous side effects like seizures and deaths. Some people also appear to go through withdrawal when off kratom, … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthFDA Is Going After Kratom, Warning Companies to Stop Selling It for Opioid Addiction and Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration is still pressing down hard on kratom—the plant treatment that adherents say has helped them manage their opioid addiction or chronic pain. This week, the agency announced it was sending warning letters to two online marketers and distributors, accusing them of illegally selling kratom products with false or unproven claims … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthLegal Cannabis May Not Lower Opioid Overdose Deaths After All
A new study seems to deal a serious blow to one of the pro-cannabis movement’s talking points: the idea that the more medical cannabis is legalized, the fewer people will die from opioid overdoses. The findings suggest that there’s no real connection between the rate of opioid overdose deaths and a state’s medical cannabis laws, … Continued
By Ed Cara -
ScienceHealthCBD Might Help People Struggling With Opioid Addiction, Small Trial Shows
A new study out Tuesday is the latest to suggest that cannabis—or at least a key ingredient of it—might help people struggling with addiction. It found that people with opioid use disorder experienced less symptoms of craving when given cannabidiol, or CBD, over a placebo. CBD also helped them calm down and reduced their anxiety. … Continued
By Ed Cara
