Arizona hospitals and healthcare professionals shifted their focus in recent months to responding to the COVID-19 crisis. But early indications now suggest the pandemic may be helping to fuel our nation’s other public health emergency: opioid abuse. Local authorities and ...
Read More »House bill would limit Good Samaritan provision of opioids law 
A Republican-backed bill seeks to amend the Good Samaritan law in Gov. Doug Ducey’s recently-passed, wide-ranging, opioids law.
Read More »Good Samaritan bill would provide immunity for reporting drug overdose 
Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, wants Arizona to join the vast majority of states that provide immunity to those who report a drug overdose.
Read More »Bill to limit government restrictions on painkillers introduced 
Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Scottsdale, introduced a bill last week that would seek to prohibit the state from limiting the number of prescription pain pills that can be prescribed to a patient.
Read More »State agricultural department gets in on fight against opioid abuse 
The Arizona Department of Agriculture’s livestock officers will start carrying naloxone, a drug that reverses the effect of opioid overdoses.
Read More »Solution to opioid addiction epidemic is medication-assisted treatment
Addiction is a complex illness, with biological and psychological components. Medication pacifies the addicted brain’s receptors that produce cravings and rewards, while psychosocial rehabilitation helps the wounded, traumatized individual manage his or her depression and illness. Together, they produce the best outcome.
Read More »Ducey orders health care providers to report opioid overdoses and deaths 
Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Tuesday allowing the director of the Arizona Department of Health Service to collect the names of those who overdose on opioids.
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