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The nation’s struggle with opioids isn’t a secret. Nearly 2 million Americans are estimated to be addicted to opioids. In 2012 alone more than 259 million opioid prescriptions were written. Prescription medication abuse is a leading cause of heroin abuse: Four out five heroin users started on prescription drugs. That’s why medical professionals in Tennessee are using technology to help law enforcement curtail drug abuse. Professionals say prescription abuse and overuse are te

There is a unique facility in Nashville. Referred to as “DC-4,” the Davidson County Drug Court has given me specific insights into both the problems plaguing our state’s justice system and some potential solutions. DC-4 is unique because it is a court-operated, long-term residential treatment facility for nonviolent felony offenders. People who would normally be sent to the Tennessee Department of Corrections to serve out their sentences are instead placed in this facility, w

The grasp of opioid addiction is far-reaching and unbiased. It preys upon people of every socioeconomic status and race. Residents of Williamson County, which has one of the highest median household incomes in the nation, are not immune to the clutches of this addiction. “Brentwood is definitely a bubble and that bubble fed into my addiction,” recovering addict Alex * said. According to data from the Tennessee Department of Health, more Tennesseans died from drug overdoses th

Tennessee Supreme Court cases involving opioid abuse only occasionally come before Chief Justice Jeffrey Bivens. But Bivens' duties off the bench take him across the state, and he has been alarmed by what he has seen of Tennessee's epidemic firsthand. "I go from Mountain City to Memphis, and you just see it from one end of the state to the next," Bivens said. Bivens is one of six chief justices in the Midwest and Appalachia to help launch a new regional approach to tackling a

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Metro police worked with the 18th Judicial Drug Task Force to arrest a man accused of selling heroin laced with fentanyl in Nashville. Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid used in by doctors to treat chronic pain during major surgery. But on the street, people can overdose within minutes of ingesting small amounts of the drug. Authorities say the target of their investigation was James LaBrone House, aka “Barn,” whose Hendersonville home was

A new report from the Tennessee Department of Health on drug overdose deaths sheds new light on the opioid epidemic plaguing the state, darkening the lines of an emerging portrait of the typical abuser killed by the powerful painkillers. The drug overdose fatalities are overwhelmingly white, mostly male and increasingly less likely to have prescriptions for the drugs that kill them. And, across Tennessee, those killed are more likely to overdose on opioids — including heroin

Levi began life with neonatal abstinence syndrome. But in the two years since Chris Miller adopted him, 2-year-old Levi has made significant progress. “Levi is doing phenomenal. Early on, he had some visits with therapists and social workers. Now he does some physical and occupational therapy for some of the things he needs but overall, he is phenomenal,” Miller said. “He’s growing like a beast, and just a very happy child.” Neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, affects infan

A Morristown medical doctor who was one of the most prolific prescribers of opiate painkillers in Tennessee will not contest government allegations he transformed his neurology practice into a pill-seeker’s paradise, according to federal court documents. Dr. Abdelrahman Mohamed, the owner and operator of Hamblen Neuroscience on West Morris Boulevard, indicated Monday he will plead guilty to conspiracy and health-care fraud charges, and pay $733,422 restitution to government-r

A spike in the number of patients coming in with infected heart valves has surgeons speaking up — because even if the expensive and involved surgery is successful, many of these patients, who inject opioid drugs, still will die young. That leaves doctors and hospital systems grappling with the ethics of when — or if — to replace the heart valves of IV drug users who may come in months later with the replacement valve infected. “It’s not a high-mortality surgery,” said cardiot