June 19, 2017
A new lawsuit invokes the plight of a baby born dependent on opioid drugs, as three Tennessee prosecutors and the baby’s guardian accuse several drug manufacturers of unleashing an epidemic through deceptive marketing about the risks of addiction to painkillers. …
April 24, 2017
West Virginia will receive $5.9 million from the federal government to help fight drug addiction. U.S. Rep. Evan Jenkins and Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin announced the grant Thursday from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. …
March 17, 2017
Fatal drug overdoses in West Virginia continued to rise last year and its overdose death rate still far outpaces any other state in the country. A Feb. 13 analysis by the West Virginia Health Statistics Center shows at least 818 …
December 19, 2016
West Virginia’s attorney general has sued a pharmacy in Boone County, alleging it provided too many highly addictive painkillers over more than a decade. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey says Larry’s Drive-In Pharmacy helped fuel the state’s opioid prescription crisis by …
June 17, 2016
The number of prescription drugs being dispensed in West Virginia is on pace to drop to its lowest amount in five years. The number of controlled substances being dispensed is expected to fall to 268 million by the end of …
May 27, 2016
Information about pill shipments that prescription drug distributors being sued by the state had sought to keep secret show that the firms flooded rural West Virginia with hundreds of thousands of painkillers. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports a Boone County judge …
May 20, 2016
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey plans to purchase incinerators for the disposal of unwanted and expired prescription medication in a state that leads the nation in the rate of overdose deaths. Morrisey announced the move Tuesday as part of …
March 1, 2016
Officials say fatal drug overdoses in North Carolina have jumped from 2002 to 2014. The Charlotte Observer reports federal data shows that overdoses killed as many as 16 people per 100,000 residents in the state in 2014 compared to about …
January 7, 2016
Most doctors in South Carolina will soon be required to consult a statewide database of patients’ medical history as a way to combat the state’s rampant prescription painkiller problem. The changes will direct any doctor who wants to bill either …
December 18, 2015
The West Virginia Hospital Association Board of Trustees has endorsed a set of guidelines to help West Virginia’s hospitals reduce the misuse of opioid prescription drugs. Director of Communications Tina Rymer said in a news release Dec. 14 the guidelines …