In the midst of a crisis of opioid addiction and overdoses, patients and doctors alike are seeking out alternatives to opioid medication for relieving pain. Ranging from medicinal herbs to acupuncture to biofeedback, options abound — offering both hope and a bewildering array of choices.
A town hall meeting on Jan. 30 at A-B Tech sought to describe the scope of the opioid epidemic. In 2016, 17 million painkillers were prescribed in Buncombe County, which amounts to about 68 pills for every person in the county.
Last month, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners approved moving forward with litigation against the opioid industry and now it officially has a federal lawsuit against pain pill manufacturers and distributors.
Buncombe County commissioners signed off on amending economic development incentives, expanding preschool offerings and moving forward with a lawsuit against opioid manufacturers.
The number of opioid-related hospital visits in Buncombe County is up 172 percent from the previous year and commissioners and looking to the courtroom for relief.
Buncombe County staff presented commissioners with an update on opioid use on Tuesday, Aug. 1. Statistics from Buncombe EMS show some 520 responses to overdoses and poisonings in the first half of this year.
State Attorney General Josh Stein visited Asheville on June 6 to discuss the region’s efforts to combat the far-reaching effects of the opioid crisis. While not alone among North Carolina counties in dealing with drug abuse, overdoses and drug-related deaths, Buncombe County’s problem is significant, local representatives and Stein said.
Buncombe County commissioners identified combating opioid abuse and increasing teacher salary supplements as top priorities. But is legal marijuana a viable strategy for achieving those goals, or merely smoke and mirrors?
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted to expand access to preschool while holding off on pledged support to anti-opioid efforts during its meeting on Tuesday, April 4.
No funding has officially been approved, but commissioners presented a united front in committing to a three-pronged approach to curbing opioid use. The effort will include community paramedics, residential treatment for new mothers and a media blitz focused on prevention.
Goals and priorities emerged when the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners held its retreat on Friday, Feb. 17. Among priorities are continuing to increase teacher pay while looking at expanding access to preschool across the county.
Buncombe County, like many places across the country, is in the throes of an opioid epidemic, many local sources say. Despite law enforcement efforts and increased awareness of overprescribing, the last few years have seen a dramatic rise in opioid-related overdoses and deaths. Between 2005 and 2014, the county had 110 homicides, according to the […]
The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners spent nearly three hours considering zoning requests, getting information about opioid use and tending to other business during its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18. Xpress has a recap of the entire agenda…
Asheville is also seeing an upsurge in heroin use and overdoses, says Asheville police department’s Drug Suppression Unit. The department began tracking overdoses March 29, 2014, as they became strikingly more prevalent. Through July of this year, officers responded to 25 overdoses.
Amid escalating use and abuse of opioids nationwide, the number of local narcotics-related overdoses has increased rapidly in recent years. The drug naloxone can temporarily suspend those drugs’ effects, and the Asheville metropolitan area leads the state in confirmed cases of opioid overdose reversal, according to the N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition.
Beyond medicine Living the healthy life Part II of Xpress‘ two part special wellness feature (see Wellness Issues stories sidebar for articles from both special wellness issues). by Susan Foster, Wellness editor Increasingly, researchers, care providers, government agencies and even insurance companies are recognizing that social factors play a much larger role in determining health outcomes […]