This Week's News in Substance Use: 12/15/17

America's Workforce Is Paying a Huge Price for The Opioid Epidemic , Forbes

“An October PBS NewsHour report, ‘How Opioids Have Decimated the American Workforce,’ looked at a region in Ohio where employers are hard-pressed to fill job openings for skilled workers. The CEO of Columbiana Boiler Company, Michael Sherwin, said his company has had job vacancies lasting up to two years. He estimated a business loss of $200,000 a year due to the lack of skilled workers. In many cases, candidates who have the necessary skills are unable to pass drug screenings. Sherwin said they have to turn down about 25 percent of qualified applicants for this reason. The report highlighted the story of one skilled welder who had been out of the workforce for three years due to an opioid addiction that began a decade ago when he was prescribed Vicodin for pain, as well as a machinist whose struggle with addiction had kept him out of the workforce for six years.”

Teen Opioid Use Appears to Decline Despite Increases in Drug-Related Deaths Among Adults , Washington Examiner

“Misuse of prescription opioids among 12th graders continued to decline in 2017 despite increasing rates of overdose deaths in other age groups, survey data suggests. The annual Monitoring the Future survey, published Thursday, shows that misuse of Vicodin and Oxycontin by 12th graders has reached a historic low of 4.2 percent, a 0.5 percent decrease from the year before. The totals represent half the usage recorded in 2004, when 9.5 percent of high school seniors said they had misused a prescription opioid during the past 12 months.”

Inside Kratom, The Gas Station Drug That Could Help End the Opioid Crisis , VICE

“Kratom is a plant from the same family as the coffee shrub that grows in Southeast Asia, where locals have eaten it raw, brewed it as tea, or turned it into liquids or powders for centuries. The drug's effects set in quickly and last for several hours, depending on the dose taken. In low doses, say two to three grams of powder in water, it acts like a stimulant, providing a mild buzz users liken to caffeine; in higher doses, it can relieve pain, relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and lead to mood improvements. It can be used for anything from a mild pick-me-up to serious self-administered chronic pain, depression, anxiety, or addiction management.”

DEA, DOJ Back Changes to Law Linked to Opioid Crisis , The Hill

“The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice both support changing a controversial law that led to the withdrawal of President Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s drug czar earlier this year. Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) asked that his nomination be withdrawn after 60 Minutes and The Washington Post in a joint report said a law he spearheaded through Congress had weakened the enforcement of the nation’s drug policing laws, perhaps contributing to the opioid crisis.”

How One Sentence Helped Set Off the Opioid Crisis , Marketplace

“OxyContin went to market in 1996 with a campaign by Purdue Pharma that suggested a less [misusable] drug, one that doctors could prescribe for moderate pain, in addition to severe pain. At the center of the company’s marketing aimed at physicians was a single sentence in OxyContin’s original label:

‘Delayed absorption as provided by OxyContin tablets, is believed to reduce the abuse liability of a drug.’

Purdue’s marketing campaign relied on that sentence, which claimed OxyContin was believed to be less likely to be [misused] than other prescription opioids, according to depositions from various sales reps and physicians that were pitched on the drug. But that claim was not backed up by clinical studies.”

Opioid Prescriptions Run in The Family , New York Post

“When one person in a household gets prescribed opioids, the other people who live with them are more likely to get their own prescriptions for these narcotic painkillers, a US study suggests. Researchers examined data on about 12.6 million people living in a household where someone was prescribed opioids and 6.4 million individuals in homes where someone was prescribed a different option for pain – nonprescription steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs. Overall, 11.83 percent of people living with someone prescribed opioids and 11.11 percent of people living with a person prescribed NSAIDs started taking opioids over the next year, the study found.”

24-Year-Old Man Died Suddenly from Taking Painkiller with Anxiety Medicine, Father Says , TIME

“The last time John Nebinger spoke to his son Bradley was about thirty minutes after midnight on March 15, 2010. Twenty-four-year-old Bradley said he couldn’t sleep—a frequent complaint. His father went to bed.

“‘I found him dead the next day,’ Nebinger, who lives near Seattle, said in an interview. His son was in his underwear in an untidy room littered with prescription bottles. ‘He didn’t overdose. It was just those two drugs that mixed together and led him to die.’”