Tremors would tip him off. Then anxiety would creep in, tightening his stomach and making his heart pound. Then, Paul Yepez said, he felt like he was going to explode with pain and he’d usually drop to the ground twitching and moaning. For a decade the 54-year-old former hospital environmental...
China Sentences Fentanyl Traffickers After US Tip About Ring
XINGTAI, China — A Chinese court sentenced nine fentanyl traffickers on Thursday in a case that is the culmination of a rare collaboration between Chinese and U.S. law enforcement to crack down on global networks that manufacture and distribute lethal synthetic opioids. Liu Yong was sentenced to death with a...
Former Merced Healthcare CEO Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison
A former Merced healthcare executive is headed to federal prison for five years for fraud. U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O’Neil handed Sandra Haar, 59, the prison sentence and ordered her to pay $6.1 million in restitution Monday in a Fresno courtroom. Haar was ordered to self-surrender Jan. 15 to begin...
Companies Reach $260 Million Deal to Settle Opioids Lawsuit
CLEVELAND — The nation's three biggest drug distributors and a major drugmaker reached a $260 million settlement with two Ohio counties Monday over the deadly havoc wreaked by opioids, striking a deal just hours before they were set to face a jury at the start of the first federal trial...
'This Ain't Your Mother's Marijuana," Surgeon General Says
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials issued a national warning Thursday against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women, as more states legalize the increasingly potent drug for medicinal and recreational use. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams made the announcement, with Azar calling marijuana "a dangerous drug." Officials said President Donald Trump...
California Alleges Doctor Killed 4 Patients With Opioids
SACRAMENTO — California's attorney general said Wednesday that he is charging a Northern California doctor with killing four patients by overprescribing opioids and narcotics, crimes he linked to the nationwide opioid epidemic. Attorney General Xavier Becerra filed multiple criminal charges against Dr. Thomas McNeese Keller, 72, of Santa Rosa related...
Revamped OxyContin Was Supposed to Reduce Abuse, but Has It?
WASHINGTON — Dr. Raeford Brown was uniquely positioned to help the U.S. government answer a critical question: Is a new version of the painkiller OxyContin helping fight the national opioid epidemic? An expert in pain treatment at the University of Kentucky, Brown led a panel of outside experts advising the...
Got Old or Unneeded Prescriptions Drugs? Turn Them in Saturday.
Guess how many tons of opioids and other medicines have been turned into the DEA's San Francisco division on National Prescription Drug Take Back Day? DEA-San Francisco says it has collected nearly 233 tons — or 446,000 pounds — of expired, unused and unwanted prescription medications from Northern California and Central Valley...
Deaths From Drugs and Suicide Set U.S. Record
By Adeel Hassan The number of deaths from alcohol, drugs, and suicide in 2017 hit the highest level since the collection of federal mortality data started in 1999, according to an analysis by two public health nonprofits, the Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust. To reach their conclusion, the...
How is Your Brain Wired? To Say 'Yes' to Opioids.
The mid-1980s was the era of cocaine and marijuana, when “Just Say No” was the centerpiece of the war on drugs and the government’s efforts to stem drug use and addiction. Since then, prescription opioids have become the nation’s drug scourge. The idea that mere willpower can fight this public...