Articles
The Pain Game
It’s no secret that professional sports is big business, but the pressures put on some team doctors to nurse high-priced star players back to health is leading to the over-prescription of drugs and ultimately harming the athletes in the long run, an investigation by the fifth estate reveals.
http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/episodes/2014-2015/the-pain-game-drugs-doctors-and-pro-sports
Doctors’ groups agree painkillers are over-prescribed
Doctors must accept responsibility for Canada’s opioid crisis, but they need help from governments to develop effective solutions, the leaders of several physician regulatory bodies say.
Solving the painkiller crisis: It’s in the hands of doctors
Somewhere in Canada this year, a car accident claimed the life of someone who was taking eight different kinds of potent painkillers.
High-dose opioid prescribing rising dramatically in Canada
The rate of high-dose opioid prescribing in Canada has shot up dramatically in the past six years despite guidelines advising against it, suggesting that the country’s prescription drug problem is still out of control.
Prescription painkiller deaths fall in medical marijuana states
Researchers aren’t sure why, but in the 23 U.S. states where medical marijuana has been legalized, deaths from opioid overdoses have decreased by almost 25 percent, according to a new analysis.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/25/us-medical-marijuana-deaths-idUSKBN0GP1UJ20140825
Ontario crackdown is curbing prescription opioid abuse, study says
New research shows efforts to fight opioid painkiller misuse in Ontario are putting a small but important dent in the number of prescriptions provided to doctor-shoppers and others who abuse the system.
OxyContin’s gone, but Canada’s pill-popping problem is worse than ever
A year after provincial governments clamped down on the most notorious name in prescription-drug abuse, other, more powerful, less regulated opioids are filling the void – with sometimes fatal results.