Addiction News & Policy Update for Week Ending March 29, 2019

More U.S. Teens, Kids Seeking Mental Health Care in ERs

In a hearing peppered with statistics and stories of the nation's opioid crisis, a government official told a congressional panel Thursday that the Trump administration’s plan for addressing the country’s drug crisis lacks U.S. emergency departments are seeing a surge in the number of kids and teens seeking help for mental health problems, new research warns.
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The Fentanyl Failure

In May 2016, a group of national health experts issued an urgent plea in a private letter to high-level officials in the Obama administration. Thousands of people were dying from overdoses of fentanyl — the deadliest drug to ever hit U.S..
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Opioids and unemployment: stopping the cycle

60 Minutes producer Katy Textor talks about an investment fund resurrecting jobs in hard-hit areas. One company's solution? Hire recovering addicts
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To help fight vaping, schools look to their own students

Teen vaping is on the rise, and schools are searching for solutions, with some taking disciplinary action or installing vape detectors in bathrooms.
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'Mother Jones' Investigation Takes A Look At The World Of Drug Treatment Programs

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Mother Jones reporter Julia Lurie about the loosely regulated rehab industry, and how it shuffles people in and out of treatment programs and cashes in on insurance money.
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The group of white-haired folks — some pushing walkers, others using canes — arrive right on time at the gates of Laguna Woods Village, an upscale retirement community in the picturesque hills that frame this Southern California suburb a few miles from Disneyland.
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Medications to treat opioid addiction are effective, though not widely used

For far too long, health insurers have been treating people with mental health and substance use disorders like second-class citizens. A federal court recently ruled that this must stop. Employers and regulators, take note.
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Children's mental health needs attention

With more than 2 million Americans suffering from an opioid use disorder and the escalating rate of deaths from opioid overdoses reaching about 130 per day, efforts to date have had little impact in curbing this crisis across the country.
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