Addiction Behind Bars (NY Times Editorial)

(Hat Tip: The Second Road)

April 12, 2009
"The United States must do more to curb the spread of diseases like AIDS and hepatitis C in prison, where infection rates are high and inmates can easily spread disease through unprotected sex or by sharing needles. Drug treatment in prison is clearly part of the solution. But by some estimates, fewer than one in five inmates who need formal treatment are actually getting it. That’s alarming, given that about half the prison population suffers from drug abuse or dependency problems."
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FDA to Place New Limits on Prescriptions of Narcotics (NY Times)

"Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines’ inappropriate use, federal drug officials announced Monday."

'What we’re talking about is putting in place a program to try to ensure that physicians prescribing these products are properly trained in their safe use, and that only those physicians are prescribing those products,' Dr. Jenkins [director of the F.D.A.’s new drug center] said in a news conference on Monday. 'This is going to be a massive program.'"

Read the NYT Health article