Illicit fentanyl and heroin accounted for the vast majority of opioid-related deaths, while only 1 percent of cases involved drugs for which people had prescriptions.
The discussion during last night's debate grossly exaggerated the role of prescription pain pills in opioid-related deaths.
Blaming opioid makers for the "opioid crisis" may be emotionally satisfying, but the reality is more complicated.
Can legal sales of prescription opioids constitute a nuisance? Two decisions, based on nearly identical statutes, reach diametrically opposed conclusions.
Nonmedical use of prescription analgesics did not become more common, but it did become more dangerous.
The data reinforce the point that there is no straightforward relationship between pain pill consumption and overdoses.
The causes of opioid-related deaths are more complicated than "too many pain pills."
The FDA Opioid Labeling Accuracy Act would aggravate the widespread problem of involuntary dose reductions and patient abandonment.
The decision by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine suggests state officials are beginning to recognize the harm caused by the crackdown on pain pills.
The agency’s acknowledgment of the suffering caused by its prescribing advice may be too little, too late.
The CDC decries abrupt, involuntary dose reductions and patient abandonment without acknowledging its responsibility for those unintended but foreseeable consequences.
The CDC's advice has been widely interpreted as requiring involuntary tapering of medication so it does not exceed an arbitrary threshold.
If the senator really believed "all health care should be between doctors and patients," she would not be proposing a one-size-fits-all rule for pain treatment.
The agency's opioid advice has led to arbitrary dose reductions, denial of care, senseless suffering, and suicide.
Only if you are using heroin, fentanyl, or dangerous drug mixtures
A new Medicare prescription rule will aggravate undertreatment of pain.
The crackdown on analgesics continues to push nonmedical users toward deadlier alternatives.
The physician group says widespread "misapplication" of the guidelines is hurting patients.
The president wants to sue pharmaceutical companies for telling the truth about the addictive potential of their products.
Like most people who become addicted to prescription opioids, the famous photographer had a history of substance abuse.
The anti-drug ads exaggerate the risk of addiction and falsely portray pain treatment as a highway to hell.
The doctors' lobby is right that the arbitrary rule is medically unsound and misconstrues the CDC's guidelines.
Deaths attributed solely to pain pills are rare in Clark County.
Scott Gottlieb announces a public meeting focused on the concerns of chronic pain patients.
More reason to doubt that pain pill restrictions will save lives
Like state legislators, the chain is taking its cue from the CDC's guidelines.
A new study provides more evidence that the opioid crackdown is driving people toward deadlier drugs.
An editorial calling for further restrictions on pain pills grossly exaggerates their dangers.
The latest data underline the folly of tackling the "opioid crisis" by restricting access to pain pills.
Under the final rule, pharmacists may fill high-dose opioid prescriptions as long as they verify them.
Taking a cue from the CDC, the proposed regulation imposes an arbitrary cap on opioid prescriptions.
The photographer's long history of substance abuse predates her OxyContin prescription by more than four decades.
Since responses to pain treatment vary widely, it is hazardous to draw broad conclusions from a single study.
The government's efforts to get between people and the drugs they want have not prevented drug use, but they have made it more dangerous.
The attorney general does not seem to understand how the drive to minimize opioid use hurts innocent people.
The attorney general thinks people should suffer needlessly, just like John Kelly.
While the risk of "opioid misuse" increased with the duration of the prescription, the overall rate was low.
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