The Blog

Health care providers at Hamilton County Jail in Ohio are working to help inmates stop using drugs through the administration of certain medications. A recent story in U.S. News & World Report highlighted the efforts of Hamilton County staff members to help people currently incarcerated stop using opioids and prevent future relapse. Fifty-two inmates in … Read More

Illinois recently became the 11th state in the United States to legalize recreational marijuana sales and use. In the state, advocates for cannabis have been working to ensure social justice measures were included in the legislation. Illinois, with its more than 12 million residents, is the second-most populous state to legalize recreational cannabis use, only … Read More

As of June 1, 2019, the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation will not fund the prescription medication OxyContin, and its generic equivalent oxycodone, for injured workers. Workers who are part of this organization will have no compensation for this drug starting on December 31, 2019. Ohio Governor Mark DeWine explicitly cited the nationwide opioid drug … Read More

Public health officials in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, are encouraging people to pick up free test strips to test their recreational drugs for the presence of fentanyl. The easy-to-use test strips are available at healthcare centers throughout the county. Fentanyl is a deadly opioid drug that is 100 times more potent than morphine. Fentanyl is sometimes … Read More

Michigan residents, young residents, in particular, have higher smoking rates than many other states in the nation. According to the Truth Initiative, in 2016, 20.4% of Michigan adults smoked cigarettes, compared to the national rate of 17.1%. In 2017, 10.5% of high school students said they smoked cigarettes at least one day in the past … Read More

A significant amount of people incarcerated in the United States are convicted for drug-related offenses. Since the 1980s, the number of people incarcerated for drug-related offenses in the United States rose from 40,900 in 1980 to 452,964 in 2017. According to the Department of Corrections, drug abuse is responsible for the greatest group of conviction … Read More

Construction companies and labor unions across Massachusetts halted work at multiple sites on June 5th to call attention to the opioid epidemic’s impact on their workers. This action was largely in reaction to a recent Massachusetts Department of Public Health report tracking opioid-related overdose deaths from 2011 through 2015. The report found that construction industry … Read More

The opioid epidemic is a major public health crisis. Currently, about 130 Americans die daily from an opioid overdose. The problem has worsened over the past 20 years. Between 1997 and 2017, more than 400,000 people died from an opioid-related overdose. Many state and local governments blame drug companies for the crisis. However, although multiple … Read More

Kratom might be addictive, but not enough is known about the drug for medical experts to be certain of how addictive it is. Kratom is a species of a tropical tree that grows in Southeast Asia. The leaves of kratom plants contain the psychoactive substances mitragynine (MG) and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-HMG), which produce the main psychoactive … Read More

Kratom is a drug derived from the leaves of the tropical plant Mitragyna speciosa. Currently, kratom is not illegal in America, and be found easily online via the internet, so some people use kratom to take advantage of its stimulant and euphoric properties. Kratom use is becoming more and more common in the United States. … Read More