Opioid Prescriptions – Surgeon General Makes Statement

The Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, took an unprecedented step this month sending out a cautionary letter to 2.3 million U.S. healthcare providers. In the letter, he shared his concern regarding the prescription opioid crisis which has led to a staggering number of opioid overdose deaths across the country. Dr. Murthy
Read more
No Comments

ADS CEO, Ron Rau, In Attendance at Historic Naloxone Bill Signing

Historic NC Legislation More than 1000 people die each year in North Carolina as a result of opioid overdose. On June 20th, Governor Pat McCrory signed legislation authorizing NC pharmacies to make available, without a prescription, the life-saving drug: naloxone. Naloxone has been used by first responders and other medical professionals across the country to
Read more
No Comments

CNN Special Show On Prescription Addiction

CNN aired an informative special program on 5/11/2016, Prescription Addiction: Doctors Must Lead Us Out. The one hour special was hosted by Anderson Cooper and neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta. It specifically addressed how the current opioid epidemic in America has been driven by the over prescribing of opioid medication. Various doctors, recovering addicts, and others
Read more
No Comments

Lethal Overdose Map of the United States

Using CDC statistics from 2002 – 2014, TIME has produced a coded map of fatal overdoses in the United States. In the graphic below, red areas are geographical locations with the highest concentration of fatal overdoses per capita. The study has a disclaimer however which states that small counties are not represented as accurately on
Read more
No Comments

Touching Stories – Heroin Lives Here

North Carolina Health News published a thought-provoking article profiling the heroin problem in rural North Carolina. The piece is titled “Heroin Lives Here” and documents how heroin began to infiltrate NC communities leading to unexpected overdose deaths from an unprecedented influx of heroin from Mexico. Taylor Sisk is the article author. “Heroin Lives Here” focuses
Read more
No Comments

New England Journal of Medicine on Opioid Abuse

A February 4 article in The New England Journal of Medicine addresses the epidemic of opioid abuse that has become the #1 leading cause of injury-related death in the United States now even surpassing vehicle accidents. The Journal reports that approximately 100 million U.S. citizens suffer pain in the course of a year and that
Read more
No Comments

Celebrate Recovery

Each September, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) sponsors National Recovery Month, a national observance that educates Americans on the fact that addiction treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that
Read more
No Comments

CNN Article on Heroin-related Overdoses

A new article from CNN cites an announcement by the Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) confirming that heroin use is increasing rapidly across the United States. The staggering result of this is that: “Deaths from heroin-related overdoses nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013.” The CDC report indicated that heroin use doubled among women
Read more
No Comments

Town Hall Meeting On Addiction And Recovery

A new Town Hall Meeting will occur in High Point at the High Point Arts Council on Tuesday evening July 14th. Fact: Two out of three families are somehow touched by addiction! The Town Hall Meeting will address addiction in our community and how family members can do something about this illness to hopefully prevent
Read more
No Comments

Alberta Canada Sees Increase in Utilization of Methadone

The Metronews of Canada recently published an article outlining a recent increase in the utilization of methadone to treat opioid addiction. The Alberta Canada Health agency shared statistics showing that approximately twice as many people began opioid replacement therapy with methadone during the fiscal year 2012 – 2013. The number of patients receiving methadone rose
Read more
No Comments