The immense impact of the opioid crisis and the efforts to combat it continue to be at the forefront of the national conversation. Avea Solutions will be posting regular updates with the latest news and articles in order to spotlight the latest developments in this ongoing epidemic.
Justice Department To Back Local Lawsuits Against Manufacturers (The Guardian)
"A new federal taskforce will target misdeeds of opioid manufacturers and distributors, and the US Department of Justice will back lawsuits brought by local governments against makers of the prescription painkillers at the root of the opioids public health crisis, the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced on Tuesday."
Opioid Crisis Now $1 Trillion Problem (Behavioral Healthcare Executive)
"The cost of the opioid epidemic in the United States has climbed to an estimated $1 trillion since 2001, and costs related to the crisis are increasing at an accelerating rate, according to a study released Tuesday by Altarum, a not-for-profit health research and consulting institute."
The Opioid Crisis Is Draining America's Workforce (CNN)
"The share of people working or looking for work still hasn't recovered from before the recession. Part of the problem: The rise in abuse of prescription painkillers, partially responsible for the 64,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016, has incapacitated thousands of working-age people whom employers would otherwise be eager to hire."
America's Opioid Crisis Has Become "The Epidemic Of Epidemics" (Vox)
"The United States often measures the severity of its opioid crisis in drug overdose deaths. Driven by prescription opioids, heroin, and the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl, drug overdoses claimed 64,000 lives in 2016 alone, more than the entire death toll during the Vietnam War."
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