FBI-LEEDA is an executive training company for law enforcement. In response to the increase in prescription drug overdose fatalities and the rise of prescription drug thefts, FBI-LEEDA partnered with Purdue Pharma, L.P. — a pharmaceutical company. Together they are training law enforcement personnel on how to identify prescription drugs on the street. Officers are taught..
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—CDC—produces a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The July 4, 2014 report detailed the plunge in Florida’s prescription drug overdose rate between 2010 and 2012. According to the report, prescription drug deaths decreased about 23 percent. Overdose deaths from oxycodone decreased more than 50 percent. The CDC attributes the..
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 10 to 30 percent of all prescription drugs sold in developing countries are counterfeit. According to Motherboard.com, manufacturing counterfeit drugs is cheap and easy, provided the counterfeiters can obtain the ingredients. Pfizer, the maker of Viagra—the most counterfeited prescription drug in the world—filed its patent for the..
In November 2014, the Medical Board of California published a guideline for physicians on how and when to prescribe prescription opioids. The 90-page document covers topics ranging from understanding different types of pain—acute, chronic, nociceptive and neuropathic—to treating different special patient populations—end-of-life, older, pregnant, pediatric, psychiatric and patients with a history of substance abuse—to compliance—specifically,..
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—CDC, prescription drug abuse in the U.S. has reached epidemic proportions. Across the country, more and more states are reporting increases in crime directly traceable to prescription drug use.
Jaroslav Flegr is an evolutionary biologist at Charles University in Prague. Flegr proposed in the 90s that Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite excreted by cats, was responsible for a host of mental disorders, including schizophrenia. In a 2012 article in the Atlantic, Flegr points to cases in nature where microorganisms are responsible for altering the behavior..
As mentioned in part one of this series: there is no scientific evidence to support claims that vaccines for measles, mumps or rubella cause autism; nor is there any evidence vaccines cause neurological damage. But this has not dissuaded some individuals and groups from claiming there is a link. Earlier in 2015, Rand Paul, the..
One of the most contentious public health issues of the past two decades has been the alleged link between vaccines and the increase in the number of cases of autism. According to a 2014 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention— CDC — report, one in 68 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder—ASD…
In a 2013 article published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, Lisa Merlo, a researcher at the University of Florida’s Center for Addiction Research and Education, interviewed 55 physicians being monitored by their state physician health programs for alcohol and drug abuse. Of the 55, 38 abused prescription drugs. According to Merlo, most of the..