June 28, 2016
Five drug wholesalers have agreed to a $4.2 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging that they shipped an excessive number of prescription opioids to West Virginia, the attorney general said June 23. According to a news release, the settlement involves …
June 17, 2016
The number of prescription drugs being dispensed in West Virginia is on pace to drop to its lowest amount in five years. The number of controlled substances being dispensed is expected to fall to 268 million by the end of …
May 27, 2016
Information about pill shipments that prescription drug distributors being sued by the state had sought to keep secret show that the firms flooded rural West Virginia with hundreds of thousands of painkillers. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports a Boone County judge …
May 20, 2016
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey plans to purchase incinerators for the disposal of unwanted and expired prescription medication in a state that leads the nation in the rate of overdose deaths. Morrisey announced the move Tuesday as part of …
March 31, 2016
West Virginia pharmacies are dispensing significantly fewer doses of the state’s most popular prescription painkiller, hydrocodone. The number of prescribed hydrocodone products dropped by nearly 13 million tablets last year, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported, citing new data from the state’s …
January 11, 2016
West Virginia’s attorney general has accused one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical drug wholesalers of flooding the state with tens of millions of prescription pills in violation of state law. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey on Friday announced a lawsuit against …
December 18, 2015
The West Virginia Hospital Association Board of Trustees has endorsed a set of guidelines to help West Virginia’s hospitals reduce the misuse of opioid prescription drugs. Director of Communications Tina Rymer said in a news release Dec. 14 the guidelines …
November 3, 2015
The director of West Virginia’s mine safety office says there is a growing substance abuse problem among miners. Director Eugene White of the Office of Mine Health, Safety and Training told legislators last month that more than 800 miners have …
October 19, 2015
Nearly 2,900 West Virginians have overdosed on prescription painkillers or heroin over the past five years, according to the state Health Statistics Center. The center also said overdose deaths last year were the highest in West Virginia since 2011, and …
June 19, 2015
West Virginia has the highest rate of overdose deaths in the U.S., according to a report released this week, further spotlighting Appalachia’s festering drug abuse problem that is also fueling a rise in hepatitis C in one of the nation’s …