Heroin And Homeless Crises Collide In Northern California Creating Epidemic Of Despair
Although the state on the whole isn't as hard hit by the opioid epidemic, a rural slice in the north is struggling under the weight of dual crises.
The New York Times:
Needle By Needle, A Heroin Crisis Grips California’s Rural North
The dirty needles can be found scattered among the pine and brush, littering the forest floor around Eureka, a town long celebrated as a gateway to the scenic Redwood Empire. They are the debris of a growing heroin scourge that is gripping the remote community in Northern California. While the state as a whole has one of the lowest overall opioid-related death rates in the country, a sharp rise in heroin use across the rural north in recent years has raised alarms. In Humboldt County, the opioid death rate is five times higher than the state average, rivaling the rates of states like Maine and Vermont that have received far more national attention. (Del Real, 5/8)
In other news —
Capital Public Radio:
California Governments Take Drugmakers To Court Over Opioid Crisis
From Shasta to San Diego, local governments are asking drugmakers to cover the cost of caring for opioid-addicted patients, and to pay for the public safety and law enforcement resources used to combat the crisis. A law firm called Baron & Budd is representing 29 California counties in corporate negligence suits against several major pharmaceutical companies. (Caiola, 5/7)