More suicide, opioid deaths in the USA

Mental health, substance abuse, life stresses and economic despair fuel crisis. US suicides increased by 25 percent from 1999 to 2016. By Kate Randall, 9 June 2018. The dramatic increase in suicides shows that, despite claims of the end of the Great Recession in mid-2009, increasing numbers of people are facing incredible personal and financial hardships: here.

Overdose deaths caused by the synthetic opioid Fentanyl in the Cincinnati area increased by one thousand percent over the course of the last five years, according to a new report in the Cincinnati Enquirer: here.

The opioid overdose crisis claimed the lives of more than 3,400 Missouri residents between 2012 and 2016. According to a recently released US Senate report, three separate pharmaceutical distributors flooded the state with opioids during this period and failed to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ Minority Report, released by Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, states that pharmaceutical companies McKesson, Amerisource Bergen and Cardinal Health together shipped 1.6 billion doses of opioids into Missouri between 2012 and 2017 at the height of the crisis: here.

A socialist response to the opioid crisis: here.

GIULIANI CONFLICT OVER PHARMA PROBE Senators are questioning a potential conflict of interest concerning Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a federal probe into an opioid manufacturing pharmaceutical company. According to The New York Times, Giuliani’s firm had a $1 million contract with the Justice Department for advice on reorganizing its drug investigations at the same time he was representing Purdue Pharma against the DOJ. [HuffPost]

Florida is suing the nation’s two largest drugstore chains, Walgreens and CVS, alleging they worsened the state and national opioid crisis.

Opioid overdose deaths triple among US teens and young children: here.

U.S. life expectancy continues to fall as overdose and suicide rates soar.