In a report issued on Monday, a commission created to combat drug addiction recommended that President Donald Trump declare the opioid crisis a national emergency. The Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, formed via an executive order Trump signed in March, is chaired by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and is co-chaired by a bipartisan group of governors and health professionals.

In its interim report–a final review is due in October–the commission said its “first and most urgent recommendation” is for Trump to deem the crisis a state of emergency. The report continued:

Your declaration would empower your cabinet to take bold steps and would force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the Executive Branch even further to deal with this loss of life. It would also awaken every American to this simple fact: if this scourge has not found you or your family yet, without bold action by everyone, it soon will.

More Americans die from drug overdoses than from car accidents or gun violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 142 Americans die each day from a drug overdose; 91 die from an opioid overdose. In 2015, opioids like Percocet, Oxycontin, heroin, and fentanyl were responsible for nearly two-thirds of all drug overdose deaths. The trend is on the rise: Since 1999, according to the CDC, the number of overdose deaths linked to opioids has quadrupled.

The commission–which includes Republican Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts and Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina–recommended a number of other reforms. It asked Trump to waive the barriers that keep patients at addiction treatment facilities from qualifying for Medicaid services. The commission wrote: “This will immediately open treatment to thousands of Americans in existing facilities in all 50 states.”

Regardless of what the Trump Administration decides to do, states are beginning to tackle the opioid epidemic on their own. Earlier this year, the governors of Arizona, Florida, Virginia, and Maryland declared a state of emergency for the epidemic. But if the federal government declared the opioid crisis a state of emergency, would that make a tangible difference?

“It’s really about drawing attention to the issue and pushing for all hands on deck,” Michael Fraser, the executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told the New York Times. “It would allow a level of attention and coordination that the federal agencies might not otherwise have, but in terms of day-to-day lifesaving, I don’t think it would make much difference.”

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Despite being separated by an over 5,000 mile-long border, the United States and Canada share a few commonalities, including an opioid crisis that is growing at an alarming rate. But how the U.S. and Canada have responded to the crisis shows a difference in how both countries approach a drug epidemic.

There were more than 2,400 opioid deaths in Canada last year, and the province of British Columbia alone is on pace for over 1,400 deaths this year. To tackle this issue, the Canadian government decided to create more safe places for addicts to shoot up. Health Canada, the country’s department of public health, announced in June that it would add three more “safe injection sites”–bringing the national total to seven–with the intention of building scores more in the future.

These sites give addicts clean syringes, medical supervision, and freedom from arrest. Addicts don’t get help in kicking their habit unless they ask for it, but the program dramatically reduces the chance of a fatal overdose or the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis or HIV. Last year alone, Canada’s first injection site–built in 2003 and located in Vancouver–saw 214,898 visits by 8,040 individuals, with nurses intervening in 1,781 overdoses. The site says it has never had an overdose death. Health Minister Jane Philpott swears by the safe sites.

“They are absolutely known to save lives and reduce infections,” she said. “We have a very significant public health issue in our country.”

Professionally-staffed injection sites first began in the Netherlands in the early 1970s as “alternative youth service” for members of St. Paul’s church in Rotterdam. The government officially sanctioned these sites in 1996–despite years of receiving support from law enforcement and local officials–and countries like Switzerland, Germany, Spain, and Australia soon followed suit.

In the U.S., more than 59,000 people died from an opioid overdose last year, according to a study done by The New York Times. Drug overdoses became the leading cause of death among Americans under 50 in 2008, a CNN study found. In addition, heroin-related deaths increased 439 percent from 1999 to 2014, the study found.

While most of the western world saw the potential in safe injection sites, the U.S. has relied on state-level measures with varying results. Forty states, for example, have passed Good Samaritan overdose laws. But in states like Washington, only 33 percent of opioid users–and 16 percent of police officers–were aware of the policy. Only seven percent of officers could describe who the law protects.

Police have also decided to try and take this issue into their own hands. In New York City, nearly 40 percent of patients trying to get a daily dose of methadone said they’d been stopped and frisked by police outside of clinics.

One would think that with all of these methods in place, a safe injection site would be a natural evolution. But states and the federal government have fought against such sites. California Assemblywoman Susan Talamantes Eggman, a Democrat, introduced a bill in April 2016 that would make it legal for local and state health departments to allow the use of controlled substances in clinics. The bill did not pass.

President Donald Trump recently proposed a 95 percent cut to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, despite campaigning on a promise to help fix the opioid crisis.

There might still be hope, however, for public health advocates. Last week, the Trump Administration nominated Indiana state health commissioner Jerome Adams to be the next U.S. Surgeon General. Adams has received praise from addiction specialists for prioritizing the opioid crisis during his tenure in Indiana. He persuaded then-Governor Mike Pence to implement syringe exchange programs, despite Pence’s initial reservations, which caused the number of HIV cases in the state to drop 30 percent.

Gabe Fernandez

Gabe is an editorial intern at Law Street. He is a Peruvian-American Senior at the University of Maryland pursuing a double degree in Multiplatform Journalism and Marketing. In his free time, he can be found photographing concerts, running around the city, and supporting Manchester United. Contact Gabe at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Former Los Angeles Lakers forward Lamar Odom is currently fighting for his life in a Las Vegas Hospital after being found unconscious at a Nevada brothel Tuesday, in what appears to be an apparent accidental drug overdose.

Odom had checked into a VIP suite at Love Ranch in Crystal, Nevada on Saturday, and then began “partying with the girls for days,” according to the brothel’s owner Denis Hof. Two women who work at the ranch reportedly saw Odom at 6am Tuesday and he was fine, but when they came back to check on him that afternoon, he was unconscious. Hof talked about the moment he found Odom with NBC News saying,

We called 911 and the 911 told my staff what to do — turn him over on his left side.

There was this terrible foaming stuff coming out of him, he was throwing up, a little bit of blood.

At 6’10”, Odom, 35, was too large to be airlifted according to the Chicago Tribune, so he was driven instead, about 65 miles, to Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center in Las Vegas.

A hospital source told E! News that “virtually every drug imaginable was found in his system.” The same source also said Odom “remains unconscious and on a ventilator but is still alive,” after suffering from a loss of oxygen and at least one stroke. Doctors are now estimating that he has a 50/50 chance of survival.

Sadly for many, the overdose seemed almost inevitable after Odom’s life began a steady decline when his ex-wife and reality star Khloe Khardashian filed for divorce in December 2013 after four years of marriage due to Odom’s problems with infidelity and drugs. Odom has also frequently spoken out about the “hard time” he’s been going through after being plagued by a series of deaths throughout his life including his mother, grandmother, 7-month-old son, cousin. Most recently his best friend Jamie Sangouthai died of a heroin overdose.

Even after their separation, Khloe has continuously checked in on Odom out of fear for his welfare, which has been well documented on Khloe’s reality show “Keeping Up with the Kardahians.” In one episode Khloe even says,

I’m really on high alert for Lamar, because anything, I think, will set him to spiral, and that’s kind of the last thing I want for him.

Now Khloe is reportedly by Odom’s side along with her sister Kim, and mother Kris. Multiple sources say that she is “completely inconsolable.”

The only response from the Kardashian camp as of yet comes from Khloe’s half sister Kendall Jenner, who tweeted the message “please don’t go” out to her 13 million followers on Wednesday in obvious reference to Lamar.

please don’t go.

— Kendall Jenner (@KendallJenner) October 14, 2015

Odom’s longtime publicist and friend Eve Sarkisyan did however issue the following statement to US Weekly in regards to his condition,

Family and friends are extremely concerned for Lamar. Please don’t listen to the false information being circulated unofficially. Please respect the family’s privacy during this difficult time.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Connecticut’s Wesleyan University was flooded with sirens Sunday night as almost a dozen students were rushed to hospitals after reportedly overdosing on the party drug commonly known as Molly, or MDMA.

The exact number of alleged victims varies, with police reporting that 11 students were hospitalized for the drug, while Wesleyan University President Michael S. Roth reported the figure as ten students and two visitors in a letter sent to students Monday morning.

According to the university’s student newspaper, The Wesleyan Argus, two all-campus emails were sent to students providing updates from Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Whaley. The first email reported:

A Wesleyan sophomore was transported to Middlesex Hospital early this morning and is in critical condition as a result of an apparent overdose. Two other students were transported in less serious condition but with similar symptoms.

In a second email sent out in the early afternoon, Whaley informed students that three more individuals had been hospitalized due to complications from using the drug. The email urged students to check in on one another for their safety. Whaley would later report to the Argus that the number of hospitalized students had risen to 11, as some students began to admit themselves on their own volition.

For many this mass overdose may come as a surprise since Molly is assumed to be a much safer alternative over harder substances like cocaine and heroin. The truth is this supposedly purer form of ecstasy is often not what it says it is, but instead a potentially lethal cocktail. In a CNN article about the 9 things everyone should know about the drug Molly, writers explain:

Someone who buys or takes Molly now is probably ingesting dangerous synthetic drugs that have not been tested and are produced in widely varying strengths. The DEA says only 13% of the Molly seized in New York state the last four years actually contained any MDMA, and even then it often was mixed with other drugs. The drugs frequently found in Molly are Methylone, MDPV, 4-MEC, 4-MMC, Pentedrone and MePP.

At least two individuals still remain in critical condition at Hartford Hospital, but none have reportedly passed.

There are still so many questions that surround the mysterious mass overdose that need to be answered, such as: why were so many students doing Molly that night, were these students together, and where was the drug consumed?

According to the Hartford Courant, Capt. Gary Wallace stated that a Middletown detective was on his way to Hartford Hospital to get more information about the students.

The story is still developing, but our hopes are that kids on this campus see this freak incident as warning of the dangers of taking unknown substances. Life is better than any high.

Alexis Evans

Alexis Evans is an Assistant Editor at Law Street and a Buckeye State native. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and a minor in Business from Ohio University. Contact Alexis at aevans@LawStreetMedia.com.

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