Advocates Dismayed Opioid Database Won’t Launch Until 2019 At Earliest
“Every day of delay has placed patients at risk of inappropriate and dangerous prescribing, and ensured that doctors will fail to identify and help some patients already addicted to these potent narcotics," said Carmen Balber, executive director of Consumer Watchdog. The database would help doctors from overprescribing opioids to patients.
Sacramento Bee:
As Opioid Epidemic Rages, California Database Still Not Ready
As the opioid crisis rages across the country and in rural California, the California Department of Justice has not yet certified a database designed to prevent doctors from overprescribing the drugs, angering consumer and law enforcement groups that say it hurts efforts to prevent opioid abuse. The current timeline means doctors will not have to check the database until at least January 2019. (Kobin, 2/12)
In related news —
Capital Public Radio:
Native American Treatment Center Faces Lawsuit From Yolo County
The federal Indian Health Service wants to put an adolescent rehab program on farmland northwest of Davis, but Yolo County officials say the current proposal is a recipe for traffic disaster. The $20 million live-in facility would treat roughly 100 substance-addicted American Indian and Alaska Native youth each year. (Caiola, 2/12)