Opioids in Michigan

As concerns increase about doctors using drugs, the chair of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians is sharing his story of abuse, offering hope to fellow doctors.

Michigan has made ‘harm reduction’ a focus in spending its opioid settlement funds. Two possible law changes could move that effort forward, better protecting needle-access programs and decriminalizing drug test strips.

For decades, newborns whose moms who took illicit or prescribed drugs have been whisked away to hospital nurseries or neonatal intensive care units for clinical care. But ‘rooming in’ together and skin-to-skin contact could be better for Mom, Baby and taxpayers.

U.S. drug deaths fell last year — ‘heartening’ news, according to the CDC’s medical director. Michigan mirrored that trend. Still, nearly 3,000 people died.

Michiganders living with opioid use disorder have three FDA-approved medications they can turn to for treatment: methadone, buprenorphine and naltrexone. Here’s how they work.

Federal and state policy changes mean more doctors can prescribe a drug known to help patients fight addiction. But advocates say stigma and other barriers keep Michigan patients from accessing medication assisted treatment.

Some argue a need for more potent — and pricier — overdose reversal drugs; others frame that effort as drugmakers peddling fear. The wrong choice could cost lives.

Michigan nurse Jordana Latozas began her career writing prescriptions for pain pills in “a different world.” Fourteen years later, she said, she’s trying to right the wrong that those pills caused.