Addiction News & Policy Update for Week Ending July 27, 2018

Sessions targets 10 areas in U.S. for crackdown on the sale of fentanyl

Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday ordered federal prosecutors in 10 areas that have been especially hard-hit by overdose deaths from fentanyl to bring drug charges against anyone suspected of dealing the synthetic opioid, regardless of quantity.
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Integrating Treatment at the Intersection of Opioid Use Disorder and Infectious Disease Epidemics in Medical Settings

As a result of the opioid use disorder (OUD) epidemic, new epidemics of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV infection have arisen and hospitalizations for bacteremia, endocarditis, skin and soft tissue infections, and osteomyelitis have increased.
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The shameful way race affects treatment of pain and drug addiction

“I have had little or no sleep, owing to the tooth ache or rather stump ache,” Elizabeth Drinker wrote in her diary one night in 1796. “One of my Eye teeth very sore, my face much swelled and painful.”
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Evolving opioid epidemic poses challenge for public health officials

The opioid epidemic is morphing into something new and possibly even more dangerous as cocaine and marijuana are increasingly laced with powerful synthetic opioids, health officials and experts said at Tuesday’s POLITICO Pro Summit.
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Mixing alcohol and drugs poses bigger unsafe sex risk for women

Drinking alcohol and smoking pot at the same time is more likely to increase the odds of unsafe sex for young women than for men, a small U.S. study suggests.
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Cannabis Addiction Is Not Heroin Addiction. That Doesn’t Make It Any Less Real.

A large minority of people have trouble with cannabis, and for those people, it’s important to find help.
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Opioid addiction is plateauing. But the crisis isn’t over

New data from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association suggests opioid addiction rates are finally plateauing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean overdose deaths will drop anytime soon. It’s a sobering reminder of just how long it might take America to get through the ongoing crisis.
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NIH Partners with the Dental Community to Help Curb the Opioid Crisis

Reducing healthcare’s reliance on potentially addictive opioid pain relievers has been one of the pillars of federal efforts to reverse the opioid crisis.
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