A West Virginia county saw a more than 40 percent drop in the number of non-fatal drug overdoses last year as compared to 2017. The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports just over 1,000 non-fatal overdoses were reported in Cabell County in 2018, …
A pharmaceuticals distributor has asked a federal judge to dismiss lawsuits filed by six West Virginia counties over the opioid crisis, arguing that they were filed too late and the matter was already addressed in a state suit. Cardinal Health …
West Virginia officials have reached a $3.5 million settlement with a wholesaler accused of flooding the state with millions of prescription pain pills. Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced the settlement Tuesday with H.D. Smith Wholesale Drug Co. The settlement resolved …
Two major prescription drug distributors have agreed to settle a West Virginia lawsuit alleging they fueled West Virginia’s opioid epidemic with excessively large shipments of painkillers into the state over several years. Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Thompson disclosed …
Drug wholesalers shipped 780 million hydrocodone and oxycodone pills to West Virginia in just six years, a period when 1,728 people fatally overdosed on these two painkillers, according to an investigation by the Charleston Gazette-Mail. That amounts to 433 of …
Programs that use medication to treat substance abuse are now more tightly regulated under West Virginia law. The law endorsed by Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and the GOP-led Legislature took effect Friday. It provides requirements for licensure, registration, regulation …
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 …
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 …
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 …
