Risking death, ‘testers’ become guinea pigs for heroin dealers’ lethal doses
AKRON, Ohio - For drug dealers, one of the biggest challenges of selling synthetic opioids like fentanyl is the likelihood that the product will kill their customers. To reduce that chance, many test the drugs on human guinea pigs. Bryan Stalnaker volunteered for that job. On March 24, 2015, the dose he shot up in the basement of his grandmother's home in Fairlawn killed him. Stalnaker was 48, a father of six, and the last cog in a distribution machine that stretched from China to Northeast Ohio. Chinese labs manufacture the fentanyl and ship it to the United States. Local [...]
Over 4,000 Ohioans died of drug overdoses in 2016, a 33 percent increase
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Last year, 4,050 Ohio residents died of unintentional drug overdoses, up 32.8 percent from 2015, according a state report released Wednesday. Nearly a third of those deaths were in Northeast Ohio. State officials are attributing the surge to stronger drugs, including fentanyl and the emergence of a similar drug, carfentanil. Carfentanil was involved in 340 overdose deaths, most of them in the second half of the year, according to the Ohio Department of Health's annual drug overdose death report. Generally, heroin is twice as potent as morphine. Fentanyl is 50 times as potent as heroin and carfentanil [...]
Know The Rx Opioid Memorial Event
What: Know The Rx Opioid Memorial Event When: Thursday, August 31 11:30am-12:30pm Where: 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd Cleveland, OH 44114 Remarks From: Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish MetroHealth Hospital CEO Dr. Akram Boutros Rock & Roll Hall of Fame CEO Greg Harris This event will bring the community together to remember those we’ve lost to overdose deaths, learn about opioid addiction risk factors and empower people to become advocates. We’ve already installed opioid-related memorial materials on the Rock Hall plaza if you haven’t yet had an opportunity to check it out, and we plan to have even more there [...]
Celebrating Families!
Celebrating Families!™ is a successful, evidence-based 16 week curriculum that addresses the needs of children and parents in families that have serious problems with alcohol and other drugs. The curriculum engages every member of the family, ages 0 through adult, to foster the development of healthy and addiction-free individuals. This is a great free family program that the Oaks Family Care Center in Brunswick is offering for anyone suffering from any kind of addiction. Call the Oaks to schedule your family 330-220-7777. Sessions begin September 7th.
States Work To Keep Opioid Epidemic From Splitting Up Families
After Raven Mosser gave birth six years ago, she woke up to a social worker in her hospital room. Her newborn son had been born exposed to opioids — drugs she had been abusing for years. If she didn’t get clean, she was at risk of losing him. Mosser, 26, is one face of the nation’s opioid crisis. But the epidemic is also touching a much younger set of victims: children whose parents have substance abuse problems, who are increasingly being shuttled through the foster care system, unable to stay at home even as their parents struggle to get clean. [...]
Trump Declares Opioid Crisis National Emergency
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threw the weight of the White House behind the fight against the opioid crisis Thursday and declared it a national emergency. "The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially, right now, it is an emergency," Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. "It’s a national emergency. We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis." Trump's surprise announcement came two days after he vowed the U.S. would "win" the fight against the epidemic but stopped short of acting [...]