Prescription Painkillers

As communities nationwide grapple with opioid addiction, Texas and a coalition of 40 other states have served investigative subpoenas and other requests to eight companies that manufacture or distribute prescription painkillers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday.
It’s the latest development in an investigation unveiled in June. Paxton and his counterparts are trying to determine whether opioid manufacturers played a role in creating or prolonging what has become a national epidemic.

A recent survey by Yahoo News and The Marist Poll reveals, among other things, that people – regardless of whether they have children or not – are more concerned about kids smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol than they are about kids using marijuana. [1]
For the survey, 1,122 adults age 18 and older were polled from March 1 through March 7, 2017.

On Thursday, the Senate approved a bill aimed at tackling the nation’s growing painkiller- and heroin-abuse epidemic, but it may prove to be a useless effort.
Source: NAADAC

Public health directors across the United States are pressuring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to put a “black box” warning, the agency’s strongest warning, on prescription painkillers and sedatives. [1]
The demand, which comes in the form of a petition, comes as cities and states grapple with a growing epidemic of painkiller abuse.
The officials write in the petition submitted Monday:

In an effort to cut prescription painkiller addiction and overdose deaths, the CDC created prescribing guidelines. But it looks like Big Pharma is delaying those guidelines, likely to protect drug sales.