August & September 2019
We advocated at the state level, providing solicited testimony in opioid-related hearings in state legislatures in Colorado, presenting to the Bree Collective in Washington, and meeting with state Attorneys General about opioid litigation.
We advocated at the state level, providing solicited testimony in opioid-related hearings in state legislatures in Colorado, presenting to the Bree Collective in Washington, and meeting with state Attorneys General about opioid litigation.
June 2019
• Members of our team drafted a letter to Congress, signed by the 100 leading federal and state disability rights organizations regarding the CDC and FDA corrections and continued harm to pain patients.
• We presented on the dangers of involuntary opioid tapering or discontinuation to the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic.
• Members of our team drafted a letter to Congress, signed by the 100 leading federal and state disability rights organizations regarding the CDC and FDA corrections and continued harm to pain patients.
• We presented on the dangers of involuntary opioid tapering or discontinuation to the National Academy of Medicine’s Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic.
May 2019
• We worked with reporters, researchers, academics and advocates concerned about the way media represents drug use and addiction to create Changing the Narrative, a portal of evidence-based resources and expert sources.
• We helped stop a July 2018 proposal in Oregon requiring about 100,000 Medicaid patients with chronic pain to stop taking opioids. We assembled a network of experts, who issued letters asking the Oregon authorities to reconsider, and in May 2019, Oregon announced it would not move ahead with the policy.
• We worked with reporters, researchers, academics and advocates to ensure representation of the perspective of pain patients in Changing the Narrative, a portal of resources and expert contacts that attempts to shift the narrative on drug policies and media coverage.
• We helped stop a July 2018 proposal in Oregon requiring about 100,000 Medicaid patients with chronic pain to stop taking opioids. We assembled a network of experts, who issued letters asking the Oregon authorities to reconsider, and in May 2019, Oregon announced it would not move ahead with the policy.
April 2019
• We conducted briefings for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Disability Policy Group that includes representatives from each federal agency and the military branches.
• After meetings with our team, the CDC issued public-facing statements acknowledging that its 2016 Prescribing Guideline had been misapplied by policymakers in ways that endanger patient health and safety. In a press release and article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC came out against:
* Strict limits on opioid prescribing for acute pain.
* Strict application of the CDC’s dosage guidance, i.e. treating the recommended dose of 90 MME/day as mandatory.
* Mandatory or abrupt opioid dose reduction (tapering) and patient abandonment.
• The CDC also noted that the Guideline was wrongly applied to cancer and sickle cell patients, and that it was not intended to deny access to opioids for anyone with chronic pain. [ read more ]
• The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against abrupt opioid tapering and announced a label change to protect patients. [ read more ]
• We conducted briefings for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Disability Policy Group that includes representatives from each federal agency and the military branches.
• After meetings with our team, the CDC issued public-facing statements acknowledging that its 2016 Prescribing Guideline had been misapplied by policymakers in ways that endanger patient health and safety. In a press release and article in The New England Journal of Medicine, the CDC came out against:
Strict limits on opioid prescribing for acute pain.
Strict application of the CDC’s dosage guidance, i.e. treating the recommended dose of 90 MME/day as mandatory.
Mandatory or abrupt opioid dose reduction (tapering) and patient abandonment.
• The CDC also noted that the Guideline was wrongly applied to cancer and sickle cell patients, and that it was not intended to deny access to opioids for anyone with chronic pain.
• The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning against abrupt opioid tapering and announced a label change to protect patients.
March 2019
• Members of our team organized a letter signed by 300 experts that included three former drug czars to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urging it to correct the misapplication of its 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (covered in The New York Times).
• Members of our team drafted an international stakeholder letter signed by over 100 experts raised awareness about forced opioid tapering. (It was covered in press outlets on three continents, including this in Reuters).
• Members of our team organized a letter signed by 300 experts that included three former drug czars to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urging it to correct the misapplication of its 2016 Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain (covered in The New York Times).
• Members of our team drafted an international stakeholder letter signed by over 100 experts raised awareness about forced opioid tapering. (It was covered in press outlets on three continents, including this in Reuters).