opioid drugs

Michigan is getting $17.5 million in federal funds to fight opioid overdose deaths and addiction.

New guidelines set by the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network (OPEN) and implemented by hospitals around the state have allowed surgeons to reduce the amount of opioids they prescribe to patients post-surgery. Patients didn’t report increased pain; in fact, patients reported the same amount of pain as patients did with more opioids.

The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs says the number of opioids dispensed in the state decreased by 15% in 2018 compared with the year before. The number of prescriptions dispensed fell from roughly 9.6 million in 2017 to about 8.2 million in 2018.

The data provided by LARA show that the individual units dispensed (such as tablets and milliliters) decreased by 16.9%, the total days’ supply of opioids decreased by 10.8%, and the "milligram morphine equivalent," or the standard used to measure the potency of opioids, decreased by 21%.

Legislation allowing libraries to stock and administer opioid overdose drugs is on pace to reach the governor’s desk by June. The state Senate Health Policy committee approved four bills Thursday.

A new program will train Michigan doctors to effectively treat people with opioid addictions. The University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, and Spectrum health are partnering on the effort.

The program is called Michigan CARES (Collaborative Addiction Resources and Education System). It aims to tackle the problem of opioid addiction in Michigan.

A state grant gave the program $1.5 million.

Flint is the latest Michigan city to file a lawsuit against the nation’s largest manufacturers of opioid drugs.

Lawyers for the city filed a 111 page brief in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Monday. 

Patients who are prescribed opioids for post-surgical pain only use a quarter of their prescriptions on average, according to a new study.

The study from the University of Michigan looked at 2,392 surgical patients across 33 of the state's health systems.

The State of Michigan has launched a new website to bring information together in one location about opioid addiction and how to get help.

Before, this information was scattered among various state agencies.

Young people who were prescribed opioids for wisdom tooth extraction have a 2.7-fold increased risk of developing an opioid habit compared to those who were not prescribed opioids. That’s according to a new study from the University of Michigan.

A county at the tip of Michigan's Thumb is bucking a trend: It won't join a lawsuit against the makers of opioid drugs.

Cities and counties across Michigan are suing drug companies and retailers over the consequences of excessive opioid use. They want the companies to reimburse them for the costs of responding to the crisis.

A group of physicians is hosting a statewide medication take-back event to help people dispose of unneeded and excess opioid drugs.

Michigan-OPEN co-director Chad Brummett says unused opioids and other medications are often abused, and can lead to accidental overdose.

Prescription opioids and other addictive medications would have to be dispensed in lockable vials under legislation that was introduced yesterday in the Michigan House. 

The goal of the bill is to deter young people from sneaking small numbers of pills from bottles they find in their homes or the homes of friends.

The United States Surgeon General Jerome Adams joined a panel discussion on opioid addiction at the University of Michigan Thursday. 

Adams highlighted the challenges of the opioid addiction epidemic, calling for a cultural change in how people use opioid medications.

"We need you all to have discussions in your communities, at your board room tables, at your break room tables, at your dinner tables, about how dangerous these medications can be when used improperly and the fact that in the majority of cases you simply don't need them," said Adams. 

Last May, Michigan health officials authorized a way for people at risk of opioid overdose to get Naloxone directly from a registered pharmacy without a doctor's prescription.  The authorization also allows family members, friends and other people who may be able to help a person at risk of overdose to obtain Naloxone directly from a registered pharmacy.

Naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, is a medication designed to reverse overdoses.

A federal indictment was unsealed today charging a Livonia doctor and seven other people with conspiracy to illegally distribute highly addictive prescription drugs.

According to the indictment, Dr. Zongli Chang wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances in exchange for cash payments. 

The number of government lawsuits against prescription opioid makers and distributors is rising rapidly.

"There are over a hundred that have been filed by state governments, federal governments, local governments, and then Native American tribes,” said Rebecca Haffajee, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health.

Haffajee thinks those lawsuits could be an effective tool in the fight against the opioid epidemic, as she wrote in a recent New England Journal of Medicine article. 

Monday night, the Lansing city council declared the opioid crisis a public nuisance. It’s a first step toward filing a lawsuit against drug companies.

Twelve men face federal charges for their alleged roles in an Oakland County-based drug ring that’s linked to at least one overdose death.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit unsealed an indictment against the men Wednesday.

The indictment alleges the men were part of a “drug trafficking organization known as the TEAM.” The “TEAM” was reportedly a merger of two former street gangs who “joined together to distribute heroin” starting in 2010.

Patients and surgeons can now find free, online recommendations about how much opioid pain medication to prescribe for 11 common operations.

The guidelines were developed by a team of University of Michigan medical researchers, with the goal of curbing opioid addiction. They include suggested information for health care providers to give patients about post-surgical pain expectations and medication use. 

In 2000, 59 young adults in Michigan between the ages of 18 and 29 were reported as having chronic hepatitis C (HVC). Last year, there 2,060 reported cases in that same age group.

That’s an astonishing 3,391 percent increase within the span of just 16 years.

Those numbers come from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services annual assessment of hepatitis rates, which was released on Wednesday. 

Health organizations in Michigan just got some more ammunition in the fight against opioid abuse.

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund has awarded nearly $6.5 million dollars in grants to health programs around the state in an effort to address the opioid crisis.  

Becky Cienki, the MHEF's senior program officer, says the grants were made through the fund's behavioral health initiative. The 16 projects that received grants are focused on either substance abuse disorders or mental health.

State officials say overdose deaths jumped by 18% last year in Michigan with the majority of cases involving opioid abuse.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that nearly 1,700 of the 2,335 overdose deaths in 2016 were opioid-related.

Doctors would be required to check an electronic monitoring database before prescribing painkillers and other drugs under legislation aimed at preventing opioid addicts from "doctor shopping."

Senate Bills 166 and 167 won approval Thursday in the Michigan Senate and were sent to the House for consideration.

Michigan's per capita rate of opiod painkiller prescriptions is the 10th highest in the U.S. 

Powerful synthetic opioid street drugs have changed the way some law enforcement officials collect and handle drug evidence. 

Fentanyl and carfentinil are extremely powerful synthetic opiates sometimes used in street drugs that have made their way to Michigan. The drugs are especially dangerous because they can be absorbed through the air or through contact with the skin, according to Timothy Plancon, Special Agent in charge of the DEA's Detroit field office. 

Tuesday, state lawmakers will consider a package of bills  aimed at reducing Michigan’s growing problems with prescription painkillers.

Opioids, like hydrocodone and oxycodone, are commonly prescribed for pain management.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette says his office is treating cases of fatal drug overdoses as murder investigations.

He says four attorneys have been assigned to help prosecute cases against opioid and heroin traffickers, including two instances where alleged suppliers are accused of second-degree murder.