Five approaches to the opioid crisis, by pharmacologists, doctors, insurers, prosecutors, and legislators

Five very different approaches to the opioid crisis--by
1. pharmacologists/biologists, 2. physicians, 3. payers,  4. prosecutors, and 5.legislators:

1. From PNAS:
Safer opioids may be on the horizon, but mitigating addiction is a long shot, by Jyoti Madhusoodanan

2. From Science:
Opioid prescribing decreases after learning of a patient’s fatal overdose, by
Jason N. Doctor, Andy Nguyen, Roneet Lev, Jonathan Lucas, Tara Knight, Henu Zhao, Michael Menchine

3. From the Chicago Trib, and from Stat:
Chicago limits opioid prescriptions for city employees

Tapered to zero: In radical move, Oregon’s Medicaid program weighs cutting off chronic pain patients from opioids

4. From Reuters:
New York sues OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma over opioids

5. From the NY Times
Congress Is Writing Lots of Opioid Bills. But Which Ones Will Actually Help?


******************
And here's an article from the NY Times on the magnitude of the crisis:

Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017: Fentanyl is a big culprit, but there are also encouraging signs from states that have prioritized public health campaigns and addiction treatment.

"Strong synthetic opioids like fentanyl and its analogues have become mixed into black-market supplies of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and the class of anti-anxiety medicines known as benzodiazepines."