"Health & Medical News"

Three Clemson University fraternity brothers were charged with furnishing the alcohol that contributed to the overdose death of an 18-year-old freshman student, the Associated Press reported Jan. 31.

The misdemeanor charges were filed against the members of Sigma Nu even though victim Benjamin Garrison Sprague was not forced to drink and prosecutors determined that their actions did not directly lead to his death.

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More communities in the U.S. are distributing the opiate overdose antidote naloxone directly to addicts for emergency use, but the Bush administration continues to oppose such policies, the New York Times reported Dec. 11.

Naloxone works by blocking the opiate receptors in the brain; it has been used by emergency medical personnel since 1971 to prevent overdoses. In recent years, a number of communities have distributed the antidote directly to addicts and their friends and family members — a policy credited with reversing at least 1,000 overdoses.

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The Massachusetts Department of Public Health will distribute kits containing the anti-overdose drug Narcan to opiate addicts statewide, mirroring a project piloted in Boston last year, the Boston Globe reported Nov. 2.

Overdoses from heroin and other opiate use killed 544 people in Massachusetts in 2005. “We are aware sadly that despite our efforts, there are people who will not be ready for treatment, and we want to prevent them from dying from a fatal overdose before we have an opportunity to convince them to get into treatment,” said State Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach.

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Massachusetts health officials have established a tracking system to monitor prescription of psychiatric drugs to children after the overdose death of a four-year-old girl, the Boston Globe reported Oct. 7.

In the first three months of the program, 35 cases of suspected overprescription of drugs have been uncovered. The state Medicaid program is analyzing records of prescriptions to 82,900 children under age 5; flagged cases include those where kids are receiving three or more psychiatric drugs or one powerful antipsychotic.

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