Bill To Set Up First-In-Nation Safe Injection Site Program Fails
The measure came up two votes short, but it still could come up for a second try before the Legislature adjourns at the end of this week.
Los Angeles Times:
Bill To Create 'Safe Injection Sites' For Drug Users Fails In California Senate
A controversial proposal to allow certain California counties and cities to establish sites where people could inject drugs without legal consequences stumbled in the state Senate on Tuesday night. The measure, by Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman (D-Stockton), would establish a first-in-the-nation program in which users of heroin and other intravenous drugs could inject in settings with clean needles and under the supervision of trained staff. The goal: to stave off overdoses in an era in which heroin use is on the rise. (Mason, 9/12)
Meanwhile —
The Mercury News:
Stanford Study: Three-Quarters Of Opioid Prescriptions Written For 10 Percent Of Patients
Opioids aren’t widely overused by the general population, as often presumed. Rather, more than three-quarters of opioid prescriptions are written for just 10 percent of patients, according to an analysis by Dr. Eric Sun of Stanford University Medical Center, published in the latest issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Krieger, 9/12)