Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
How Much Are Docs Responsible for Patients' Opioid Abuse?
Analyst: F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE MedPage Today
When I see a patient in clinic, I'm given a sheet with their vital signs.
Blood pressure: 142/65. Heart rate 74. Pain: 5 out of 10. I'm a nephrologist. I specialize in chronic kidney disease – a completely painless condition. But there has been a coordinated and I think well-intentioned campaign to increase physicians' awareness of patient pain. Some have argued that the adoption of pain as the "fifth vital sign" has led to an increased rate of opioid prescription, addiction, and overdose.
It is quite clear that overdose deaths are increasing.
In the face of data like this, we are forced to examine our own responsibility as physicians. Do these numbers reflect some deeper societal issues, or is our prescribing behavior to blame?
The hypothesis is that a patient gets an initial opioid prescription, and, due to the well-documented addictive properties of opioids, turns into a chronic abuser of the drugs.
This article appearing in the journal Pain attempts to quantify just how frequently this pathway is followed.
The researchers used MarketScan data – this is a huge database of mostly employer-insured individuals – and identified a bit over 10 million individuals with a new opioid prescription between 2003 and 2013. These were matched with controls who never got an opioid prescription.
Those who got opioids were more likely to have an antecedent history of opioid use disorder, substance use disorder, and a host of other psychiatric problems. They were also significantly more likely to have received psychotropic medications.
So opioid prescriptions are going to some high-risk individuals. But how many of those would turn into chronic users?
The study concludes – not that many. After 18 months, only 1.3% of individuals had transitioned from one-time to chronic use ... at least based on prescription records.
IOWA LEGISLATORS TO CONSIDER TOBACCO PURCHASE AGE INCREASE AGAIN
By Patrick Lagreid @phxcigarguy · Halfwheel On January 8, 2017
A bill to raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products has been pre-filed in the Iowa State Senate, with its sponsor hoping that this year’s legislature is more receptive to his idea than it was in 2016.
After last year’s version failed to get enough support to advance out of the Senate Human Resources Committee, State Sen. Herman Quimbach, D-Ames, said that he would be bringing the bill back in 2017. On Friday he pre-filed it for the upcoming legislative session, which begins on Monday.
His proposal seeks to raise the minimum age to both purchase and possess tobacco products from 18 to 21-years-old, meaning that it would not only be illegal for a person to sell or give tobacco to someone under 21, but illegal for a person under 21 to be in possession of a tobacco product. The increase would also apply to alternative tobacco and nicotine delivery products.
The changes contained in the bill would not applicable to any person who is 18 years of age or older before January 1, 2018, and at such time could lawfully possess, purchase, or use such products.
Should the proposal become law, the increase would go into effect on Jan. 1, 2018.
Last week, similar legislation was also introduced in the Nebraska legislature.
Hawaii and California are the only two states to have raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21-years-old, while in Alabama, Alaska, New Jersey and Utah the minimum age is 19-years-old, though a number of cities and counties have increased the minimum age on their own.
Related, Also Read:
(Washington State)
State Attorney General tries again to raise legal age to buy tobacco
states to spend less than 2 percent of tobacco revenue on cessation and prevention
Dec 14th, 2016 Truth Initiative
In fiscal year 2017, states will bring in $26.6 billion in payouts from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend less than 2 percent of it on programs to curb tobacco use.
Those figures are according to a report released today from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and a coalition of public health organizations, including Truth Initiative®. The report notes that states will spend $491.6 million on tobacco prevention and cessation in 2017, about one-seventh of the $3.3 billion the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends states spend.
Highlights from the report, “Broken Promises to Our Children: A State-by-State Look at the 1998 Tobacco Settlement 18 Years Later,” make clear that states are once again missing an opportunity to save millions of lives and billions of dollars in health care costs by continuing to shortchange proven tobacco prevention and cessation programs.
-A majority of states—29 and the District of Columbia—are spending less than 20 percent of what the CDC recommends. New Jersey, which ranks last in the report for the third year in a row, and Connecticut have allocated no state funds for tobacco prevention programs. (Learn more about how each state ranks here.)-North Dakota is the only state that uses state revenue to fund tobacco programs at the level the CDC recommends. (Alaska meets the threshold when federal grant funds are included.) Only one other state, -Oklahoma, provides even half the recommended funding.
-For every $1 the states spend to reduce tobacco use, tobacco companies spend more than $18 to market tobacco products. Tobacco companies spent $9.1 billion to market cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in 2014, according to recent data from the Federal Trade Commission.
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting Set for February 17, 2017 (RSVP Below)
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting
Friday, Feb 17, 2017, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition