ADRF Stories and Addiction News

When people die from overdoses of opioids, whether prescription pain medications or street drugs, it is the suppression of breathing that almost always kills them. The drugs act on neuronal receptors to dull pain, but those in the brain stem also control breathing. When activated, they can signal respiration to slow, and then stop. The […]

After two years of painstaking investigation, David Schiller and the rest of the Drug Enforcement Administration team he supervised were ready to move on the biggest opioid distribution case in U.S. history. The team, based out of the DEA’s Denver field division, had been examining the operations of the nation’s largest drug company, McKesson Corp. […]

Today we are excited to share an announcement from Indivior about the FDAs approval SUBLOCADE™, which is the first and only once-monthly injectable buprenorphine formulation to treat moderate to severe opioid use disorder. This is a great step in the fight against opioid addiction. Please read on for the full release and information about where […]

Years of sustained and coordinated efforts will be required to contain and reverse the harmful societal effects of the prescription and illicit opioid epidemics, which are intertwined and getting worse, says a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  The report, requested by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says it is […]

For the past two decades, the USA has been in the throes of an opioid crisis marked by a rising number of deaths; in 2016, opioids were responsible for most of the nation’s estimated 64 000 fatal drug overdoses. The problem began with overprescribing of opioid analgesics in the 1990s, which exposed pain patients to the risks of addiction and produced large […]

Following months of uncertainty, President Trump late last month made good on his promise to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. After much talk about fighting the devastating and deadly impact of these highly addictive drugs, the administration is now taking action. It remains unclear exactly what President Trump’s emergency declaration will entail. A […]

The number of annual drug overdose deaths in New Mexico has plateaued amid a series of pioneering policies to combat opioid addiction, including becoming the first state to require law enforcement agencies to provide officers with overdose antidote kits. Other solutions include a prescription monitoring database to prevent dangerous overlapping drug sales; increasingly expanding access […]

Published on October 31, 2017, The President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis include recommendations for: Federal Funding and Programs Opioid Addiction Prevention Opioid Addiction Treatment, Overdose Reversal, and Recovery Research and Development As outlined in the October 31 report, the primary goal of the President’s Commission on Combatting Drug Addiction and […]