A congressional committee investigating the opioid crisis has discovered out-of-state drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers over a decade to two pharmacies in a Southern West Virginia town with 2,900 people.
Between 2006 and 2016, two drug wholesalers shipped 10.2 million hydrocodone pills and 10.6 million oxycodone pills to Tug Valley Pharmacy and Hurley Drug in the town of Williamson, in Mingo County, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
Oddly, West Virginia leads the nation by far in opioid overdose deaths. What a coincidence!
Anthems: There's the national anthems, and then there's Anthem health "insurance". A Kentucky woman was in extreme pain and thought her appendix had burst, so she went to the ER, where it was eventually concluded that she had ovarian cysts. They gave her pain medication and a GYN appointment. Anthem denied her claim for ER services; leaving her on the hook for about $12,600 because in their view, her ER visit wasn't an actual emergency.
Apparently, you now need to diagnose your own symptoms - but hey, it saves everyone money (except you).
In Texas, border control stopped a semi truck and found another health hazard:
76 illegal aliens stuffed in the trailer.
But in Seattle, there are more important things to do:
For several years, communities nationally have trended toward smoke-free and tobacco-free park policies, as the U.S. surgeon general continues to warn of the health consequences to smoking and tobacco use.
Researchers at Columbia University in 2013 explored the trend, though, and concluded there was “weak” evidence for claims that such bans were justified by the risk of second-hand smoke, the pollution of cigarette butts or the risk to children of the visual cue of someone smoking in public. Rather, those experts found the policy initiatives were largely “designed to denormalize smoking” and had “as their ultimate goal, a profound transformation in public norms and behavior.”
