The Carter County Drug Prevention coalition spends every day educating about and providing assistance to those suffering from the negative effects of substance addiction. There is one angle people might overlook the drug problem, however: faith. The coalition has recently announced a partnership with Calvary Baptist Church, in which the church will host a lunch and discussion on the topic of drug addiction and how the church should respond to people suffering from it. Director of the coalition Jilian Reece said society’s perception of drug addiction is often harmful, even within the Christian faith. “Very often people are judged for their addictions and it is vital that we start treating add
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Just past a cemetery along a country road, an addiction treatment center called JourneyPure at the River draws hundreds of patients a month who are addicted to opioids and other drugs. They divide their days between therapy sessions, songwriting, communing with horses and climbing through a treetop ropes course. After dinner, they’re driven into town in white vans for 12-step meetings. It is a common regimen at residential treatment programs, but as the opioid epidemic persists, JourneyPure is evolving. Though its glossy website doesn’t mention it, the company is ramping up its use of medications to blunt the torturous withdrawal symptoms and cravings that compel many w
Tennessee’s largest health insurance provider realized it was not part of the solution. It was part of the problem. For the past six years, BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) of Tennessee has been working to curb the number of available opioids, after noting a significant increase in newborns experiencing opioid withdrawal in 2010. In 2019, the health benefits nonprofit is removing Oxycontin, one of the most sought-after opioids on the street, from its list of covered drugs entirely, and implementing even stricter policies around all opioid prescriptions. Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, BCBS will no longer cover prescriptions for Oxycontin, replacing the class II narcotic with more tamper-resistant drugs.
An east Tennessee nurse practitioner who once prescribed a patient 51 pills a day was allowed to keep her nursing license because of a fundamental error by members of a state nursing board, according to new arguments from state attorneys. Christina Collins, 43, who was once the ninth highest opioid prescriber in Tennessee, admitted during a medical discipline trial earlier this year that she routinely prescribed massive opioid dosages to patients she never actually examined. The Tennessee Department of Health argued her prescriptions were “so colossal” their only reasonable use would be drug trafficking or suicide. However, the Tennessee Board of Nursing allowed Collins to keep her to keep h
Maryville Director of Schools Mike Winstead said vaping, or use of e-cigarettes, among students has been more of a problem in the past year than traditional tobacco use has been over the past 10 years. He’s echoing a national trend. The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory Tues- day urging local restrictions on e-cigarettes, including taxes and indoor bans aimed at deterring young people from using. The advisory came a day after the National Institute for Drug Abuse issued new data showing nearly 21 percent of high school seniors say they vaped a nicotine product within the past 30 days, up from 11 percent a year ago. It’s the largest reported increase for any substance’s use among adoles
President Donald Trump signed Congress’ omnibus Farm Bill into law on Thursday, legalizing hemp at the federal level in a move that will surely bolster Tennessee’s burgeoning hemp and CBD industry. The new law will make it possible to buy crop insurance for hemp, erasing some of the risk for farmers who want to expand into the new market, and allow hemp to be moved across state lines, expanding options for exports and sales. “That would be ginormous,” said Billy Wall, who farms 70 acres of hemp in Franklin and owns a hemp processing lab in Murfreesboro. “It would finally put us on equal footing with regular farmers. It would be huge for all of us.” Hemp, which is closely related to marijuana
Despite legislation intended to curb the opioid epidemic in Tennessee, it’s steadily getting worse. That’s according to the 2018 Knox County Regional Forensic Center drug-related death report, which also covers Anderson County. The 37716 zip code was No. 7 on the list of zip codes with the most drug-related injuries or death that took place at home in 2017. That’s out of all the Knoxville and Anderson County zip codes. 37830, an Oak Ridge zip code, was No. 6. It’s the third year in a row 37716 made it on the Top 10 list. The report paints a bleak picture: most of the people dying from overdoses are between 35-54. The death toll increased by 41.7-percent in Knox and Anderson Counties betw
In the first six months since the Syringe Service Program began operations, more than 600 people in Knoxville received free clean syringes they can use to inject drugs. The program aims to reduce the spread of diseases for drug users while also giving them an avenue to get help. "Clean syringes, although they are not the answer to the opioid epidemic, they are certainly a part of it to help us proceed in that direction," said Dr. Kelly Cooper, Director of Medical Strategy and Development for Positively Living. The non-profit began the exchange program in March and saw most of their clients beginning in August. The Syringe Service Program allows users to exchange dirty syringes used to get hi
In the first six months since the Syringe Service Program began operations, more than 600 people in Knoxville received free clean syringes they can use to inject drugs. The program aims to reduce the spread of diseases for drug users while also giving them an avenue to get help. "Clean syringes, although they are not the answer to the opioid epidemic, they are certainly a part of it to help us proceed in that direction," said Dr. Kelly Cooper, Director of Medical Strategy and Development for Positively Living. The non-profit began the exchange program in March and saw most of their clients beginning in August. The Syringe Service Program allows users to exchange dirty syringes used to get hi
The body of a man was found in a vehicle in a back alleyway Friday night after what police believe was an overdose from inhaling an unidentified chemical, according to the Knoxville Police Department. At approximately 9:39 p.m., officers responded to a possible overdose at an address in the 3200 block of Johnston Street, the agency said in a Facebook post. When officers arrived, they spotted a vehicle parked in the back alley with a man’s body inside. A preliminary investigation determined the victim likely overdosed while inhaling a type of chemical. Two medics with AMR became ill after inhaling the chemical from inside the vehicle and were transported to the hospital for evaluation, accord
A Clarksville pain clinic doctor and pastor has been arrested in what federal prosecutors called a “massive” opioid distribution and fraud scheme. A 45-count federal indictment was unsealed Thursday, charging Dr. Samson Orusa, 56, with maintaining druginvolved premises; 22 counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance outside the bounds of professional medical practice; 13 counts of healthcare fraud; and nine counts of money laundering, U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee announced in a news release. Orusa was arrested by federal agents Thursday and appeared before a U.S. Magistrate Judge late in the afternoon. “Physicians who prey upon an already addic
A 27-year-old woman faces a second-degree murder charge after Knox County authorities say she gave the powerful painkiller fentanyl to a man who overdosed and died. Grace Ellen Milner was arrested Wednesday morning in Crossville, according to Knox County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kimberly Glenn. Milner is accused of giving Charlie Agee, 25, the dose of fentanyl that led to his death. She allegedly gave him the drug on March 6 of this year, and he died three days later, Glenn said. In addition to the murder charge, a grand jury in Knoxville indicted Milner on a charge of delivery of a controlled substance. Her bond has been set at $200,000. 'The best at the worst things' A special provisio
Displayed outside of the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office is a tree with a different purpose than the festive trees lining our streets and filling our homes. This tree serves as an overdose memorial tree, decorated with blue and silver ornaments to remember the lives we have lost due to our community’s drug epidemic. In2017, nearly 300 people died in Knox County due to a drug overdose. The number of overdoses countywide has increased 33 percent in a single year. To address the rising number of drug-related deaths in Knox County, I helped spearhead the Drug Related Death Task Force in 2017 with Appalachia HIDTA, Knox County Regional Forensic Center, Knox County Sheriff’s Office,
The Tennessee Department of Health has updated its January 2017 public health advisory to reflect recently published research of importance to the health of Tennesseans. Since the first TDH advisory on ENDS was issued in February, 2013 accumulating evidence has increased the level of concern regarding the risks posed by these products to the health of all persons involved, especially children. Most importantly: • Nicotine is highly addictive and dangerous to the developing brain. Nearly 90 percent of adult smokers started before age 18.1 • There is now substantial evidence that use of END products by youth places them at increased risk of becoming future smokers of combustible products.2,3,4
Kyle Owen, 36, leans against a wooden post, smoking a cigarette, gazing at the crops stockpiled in his barn. A row of rusted wagons are stuffed with thousands of long brown stalks of handpicked tobacco, which was the backbone of his harvest for 15 years. His American Dream was built on tobacco, but now it barely pays the bills. Fortunately, next to the line of wagons, a new dream has sprouted. Sixty bales of hemp fiber, each weighing close to 800 pounds, are stacked in the barn and waiting to be to be shipped to a processing company. This is Owen’s first hemp harvest. Most likely, he says, it is the first of many. “I’m proud that I jumped out on a limb and tried it,” Owen says. “And, to be h
David Paul Beets ducked charges for killing a woman who came to his Knoxville home to buy heroin, claiming he heard someone breaking in and had no knowledge of the drug deal taking place. Now, the house sits shuttered, and Beets, 42, is headed to prison. He received a 15-year sentence Friday for dealing methamphetamine out of the same home where he fatally shot 38year-old Stacie Marie Mundy last year, prosecutors said. Mundy’s father, David Thompson, said he is simultaneously “ecstatic” that Beets is going to prison and “disappointed” that it’s not for his daughter’s killing. “My daughter was wrong. She should have never been there. But her and these two girls that I’m having to raise now,”
Knoxville News Sentinel USA TODAY NETWORK - TENNESSEE JACKSBORO – Sure, Big Pharma pushes deadly, addictive drugs onto Tennessee’s streets, but that doesn’t make them drug dealers, an East Tennessee judge says. Eighth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge John D. McAfee is refusing a move by East Tennessee prosecutors to label the manufacturers of opiates such as OxyContin as drug dealers. Fourteen prosecutors representing 47 counties in Middle and East Tennessee last year filed lawsuits against opioid makers, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, and distributors under the Tennessee Drug Dealer Liability Act. It was a new twist on that law — which allows “innocent third parties” to sue d
Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to help tamp down on shipments of hyper-dangerous drugs into the United States in a win for the Trump administration with implications for opioid-ravaged Tennessee. Xi approved a long-sought U.S. request to prosecute people shipping synthetic opioids to the U.S. during his first meeting with President Donald Trump since a trade war between the two countries erupted earlier this year. Trump and Xi also made tentative agreements to cool the still-simmering trade war and work together toward North Korean disarmament during the Saturday meeting at the international G20 forum. Synthetic opioids linked to thousands of overdose deaths China’s decision to criminal
Roane County, Tenn. — A Detroit drug trafficking organization was busted in Harriman on Nov. 30. According to a release from the Roane County Sheriff's Office, the Michigan-based drug trafficking organization had been sending dealers on a rotating basis to the Hillside Apartments on Midtown Lane in Harriman. Investigators, working with the Harriman Police Department and Kingston Police Department, said the dealers were bringing the prescription pain killer oxymorphone in the form of 40 mg Opana pills, a schedule II controlled substance. After a few weeks, new dealers are rotated into the apartments and the others go back to Michigan. Up to 40 customers per day have been observed frequenting
