From 2006 to 2012, manufacturers shipped 76 billion opioid pills to pharmacies nationwide. More than 3.3 billion were shipped to New York State during that period. Of that total, 345 million pills were sent to Suffolk County. READ
Tag: Opioids
Five people were indicted in federal court Thursday for trafficking heroin, fentanyl and cocaine in the Riverhead area, federal prosecutors said. READ
The New York State Attorney General’s office said Thursday it has expanded a lawsuit previously filed in Suffolk County Supreme Court against the makers of opioid narcotics to include members of the Sackler family, whose company, Purdue Pharma, manufactures Oxycontin. READ
Local and state policy makers, health professionals, and others gathered at the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church of the Hamptons on Wednesday for the East End’s first opioid forum, “Stories From Suffolk.” READ
A $75,000 federal pass-through grant administered by the state health department will help Suffolk County fund a new training program for first responders on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. READ
Across Suffolk County, 396 opioid-related deaths occurred in 2017 — more than one per day for the year. This year, as of Oct. 1, there have been 171 confirmed opioid deaths countywide.
While Suffolk County does not break down opioid deaths — or the uses of Narcan, the drug that can save the life of someone who is overdosing — by towns or hamlets, there are signs on eastern Long Island that the death rate in this epidemic is at least slowing. READ
One company, the Sackler family’s Purdue Pharma, has played a critical role in instigating an epidemic of opioid addiction in the United States that killed 72,000 Americans last year — more people than perished at the peak of the HIV epidemic or died in car wrecks or shootings last year.
Even now — as the failure to recognize opioid addiction as a chronic disease rather than a moral failing, and limits on insurance coverage keep people from long-term treatment — the painkiller industry is spending nine times more on lobbying to fight regulation than is spent by the powerful gun lobby. READ
At a candlelight vigil at Good Ground Park in Hampton Bays Saturday, those affected by the opioid epidemic gathered to share stories of the loved ones they’ve lost, their own struggles with addiction and the effect of an ongoing crisis.
These are their stories. READ