opioid

In a room at the Letcher County Health Department in Whitesburg, Kentucky, about 20 people are learning how to use naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication.

Among them is 18-year-old Morgan Hopkins. An aspiring therapist, Hopkins said she wants to be ready with naloxone if someone overdoses around her.

“You never know what you’re going to see,” she said. “If anything goes wrong, you have it, rather than you don’t have it.”

As addition experts push for more treatment providers to offer medication-assisted drugs like methadone to help people get off opiods, a controversial national non-proft funded by makers of those drugs is setting up shop in Kentucky.

The Addiction Policy Forum coming to Kentucky has raised concerns about conflict of interest.

“We know that there are millions of families that are struggling with addiction and a lot of times they don’t know where to turn for accurate and useful information.”

Kentucky’s attorney general wants the state to stop investing taxpayer dollars and retirement contributions in companies that have profited from the opioid crisis. As Lisa Autry reports from member station WKYU, it’s Andy Beshear’s latest attempt to punish the makers and distributors of highly addictive painkillers.

Kentucky advance practice nurses got a big win in 2014. For the first time, they were able to prescribe routine medications, like antibiotics and blood pressure meds, to patients after spending four years collaborating with a doctor. This applied to…“nurse practitioners, nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialist…”

That was Jessica Estes , a nurse practitioner near Owensboro. She’s also the president of the Kentucky Coalition of Nurse Practitioners & Nurse-Midwives.

So this was a big win for these nurses. Nurse practitioners could basically set up their own shops - free from having to work with a doctor - but only if they didn’t prescribe controlled drugs, like opiates. They still have to have an agreement with a doctor indefinitely to prescribe those controlled drugs.

“We are now finding that APRNs are finding difficulty securing a collaborator , and they have to be of the same or a similar specialty, and licensed in Kentucky. And it’s creating some barriers.”

This ‘collaborative prescriptive agreement’ is a piece of paper, a form if you will. Doctors sign off on it. And every year, those doctors have the option of renewing that collaborative agreement.

The Lexington-Fayette government is joining 34 other Kentucky counties in suing close to two dozen wholesale drug distributors and manufacturers. 

Mayor Jim Gray announced the opioid-related federal lawsuit Thursday.

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national public health emergency.

On this week's show, we discuss the meaning of that declaration and its potential impact on Kentucky.

The Trump administration’s announcement Thursday that the opioid crisis is a national public health emergency was not news to first responders in Madison County.

EDITOR's NOTE: This story has been updated to include new information regarding the timing of an emergency declaration.

Many lawmakers from the Ohio Valley region are expected at the White House Thursday as President Donald Trump delivers an address on the opioid crisis. 

It is still not clear when the president will unveil a long-awaited emergency declaration on the epidemic. 

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department is once again offering free Naloxone kits. 

The first official distribution of the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses is scheduled for this Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

When health care and law enforcement officials met recently at a health policy forum in Lexington, Kentucky, to share ideas about the opioid crisis, Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear listed some groups that have benefited from money won in a 2015 settlement with Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists Kentucky among the three states with the highest rates of death due to drug overdose.

While there’s no easy answer,  officials who run a Northern Kentucky jail believe they have a program that could be part of the solution, using medication-assisted treatment.

Twice a month, Lexington area citizens who have lost sons, brothers or other family members to drug overdoses gather together.

While lacking in formality, their gatherings always provide a family atmosphere for those experiencing Life After Loss.

Saturday August 26, 2017 is Overdose Awareness Day in Lexington. 

On this week's Eastern Standard we'll discuss opioid addiction, overdoses and recovery and meet some of the "Voices of Recovery and Hope" in Central Kentucky.    

The Trump administration’s top health official backed away from a presidential commission’s proposal to declare a national public health emergency to address the opioid crisis.

An emergency declaration could have big implications for the Ohio Valley, a region with some of the country’s highest addiction and overdose rates.

The top recommendation from President Trump’s commission on the opioid crisis was for the president to declare the opioid crisis a national public health emergency.   

If you’ve ever enjoyed a Budget Saver twin popsicle on a hot summer day, you can thank the employees of the Ziegenfelder frozen treat factory in Wheeling, West Virginia.

Floor operator Sonny Baxter keeps the line of popsicles going in the cherry-scented worksite.  

Trump administration officials have been visiting parts of the country affected by the opioid addiction crisis, including the Ohio Valley region. The administration called it a “listening tour,” and they got an earful in events marked by protests and controversies.

t’s not just about notebooks and pencil boxes anymore: the opioid epidemic means back-to-school supplies now include things like emergency overdose treatments and drug prevention plans.

Many schools in the Ohio Valley region are using random drug testing despite doubts from addiction treatment experts about whether the tests really work to deter abuse.

A Tragedy, Then Testing