The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
People tend to think that medications they can buy without a prescription are absolutely safe for use. Indeed, if they were dangerous, you wouldn’t be able to get them at your local retail outlet, right? Well, speaking in general, this assumption is correct, but only under one condition – you strictly follow every word that is written on the tin, from allowed daily dosage to the maximal duration of consumption.
By Susan Scutti, CNN
Updated 1:03 PM ET, Tue April 25, 2017
(CNN)Experts say the United States is in the throes of an opioid abuse epidemic, causing 91 overdose deaths each day. Yet the total number of opioid-related deaths may still be underestimated, suggests new research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“In early spring, the Minnesota Department of Health was notified of an unexplained death: a middle-aged man who died suddenly at home,” said Dr. Victoria Hall, a CDC field officer based in Minnesota. He’d been on long-term opioid therapy for back pain, and his family had worried he might be abusing his medication. The medical examiner assigned to the autopsy tested for and diagnosed both pneumonia and a toxic level of opioids.
https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/24/health/opioid-deaths-cdc-report/
Dear Parent / Guardian:
by MAGGIE FOX
More Americans than ever are taking prescription drugs — close to 60 percent of U.S. adults, according to new research.
And most seem to be related to obesity, with cholesterol and blood pressure drugs leading the pack, researchers report in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The single most popular drug is Zocor, a cholesterol-lowering drug in a class called statins, said Elizabeth Kantor, formerly of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and now at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. The drug, known generically as simvastatin, is taken by 8 percent of the U.S. population.
Her team used national surveys of more than 37,000 adults to find that the percentage of people taking prescription drugs rose from 51 percent of the adult population in 1999 to 59 percent in 2011.
The population is getting older, but that doesn’t explain it, Kantor said. The pattern looks more related to obesity, which is steadily rising, More than two-thirds of the adult U.S. population is overweight or obese, and many suffer the heart disease, diabetes and other metabolic disorders that go along with being too heavy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/more-americans-ever-use-prescription-drugs-n456831
The Perfect Storm – Battling the Prescription Drug and Heroin Epidemic
Presented by Ridgewood Public Schools
State of New Jersey Drug Initiative Coordinator Douglas Collier will address district parents and guardians next week on the growing problem of prescription drug abuse and heroin addiction among school-age children. The program, “The Perfect Storm: Battling the Prescription Drug and Heroin Epidemic,” will be presented on Tuesday, November 18 at Benjamin Franklin Middle School auditorium, 335 N. Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, from 7-9 p.m.
The program, which will include practical prevention strategies and resources, is free and open to the adult public. Mr. Collier works in the state’s Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law and Public Safety, Division of Criminal Justice. He retired as a Special Agent in the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mr. Collier’s presentation is part of the 2014-2015 Curriculum Outreach Program for parents and guardians, developed by the Department of Curriculum,
Instruction and Assessment. The series consists of individual evening presentations throughout the school year, focusing on current topics in education. For more information, please contact the office of Cheryl Best, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment at 201-670-2700, ext. 10532 or cbest@ridgewood.k12.nj.us.
Keith Haring’s “Crack is Wack”
THE RIDGEWOOD POLICE DEPARTMENT IS TAKING BACK UNWANTED PRESCRIPTION DRUGS SEPTEMBER 27th, 2014
Ridgewood NJ, On September 27th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Ridgewood Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will give the public its ninth opportunity in four years to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs. Bring your pills for disposal to the Ridgewood Police Department 131 N.Maple Ave Ridgewood NJ. (The DEA cannot accept liquids or needles or sharps, only pills or patches.) The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.
Last April, Americans turned in 390 tons (over 780,000 pounds) of prescription drugs at nearly 6,100 sites operated by the DEA and more than 4,400 of its state and local law enforcement partners. When those results are combined with what was collected in its eight previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners have taken in over 4.1 million pounds—more than 2,100 tons—of pills.
This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, Americans are now advised that their usual methods for disposing of unused medicines—flushing them down the toilet or throwing them in the trash—both pose potential safety and health hazards.
RIDGEWOOD POLICE : DEA NATIONAL TAKE-BACK INITIATIVE
On Saturday APRIL 26, 2014 – 10:00 am to 2:00 pm: The Ridgewood Police Department will be participating in the DEA NATIONAL TAKE-BACK INITIATIVE
This program allows residents a safe and convenient way to dispose of unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication. Often, some of these medicines languish in the home and are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high—more Americans currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin, and inhalants combined, according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Please bring any unwanted, expired or unused prescription medication to the Police department 131 N. Maple Ave and place them in the collection bin located near the Police Desk.
