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AG Josh Kaul not satisfied with Purdue Pharma settlement

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Wisconsin is not part of a tentative settlement between Purdue Pharma and 22 states that sued the company over its role in the opioid crisis. The Washington Post reports that an executive committee of attorneys representing cities, counties and other groups in a federal lawsuit is recommending the deal be accepted.

But some state attorneys general, who sued Purdue and its owners, the Sackler family are not on board. That includes Wisconsin’s Josh Kaul, who releasded the following:

“The Sackler family has made billions of dollars from the sale of opioids. Wisconsin has alleged that two Purdue Pharma entities and Richard Sackler contributed to the opioid epidemic through unlawful conduct. We’re committed to getting justice and, in my view, Purdue’s current position doesn’t achieve that.”

The co-chairs of the legislature’s Joint Finance Committee, Representative John Nygren and Senator Alberta Darling, also released a statement:

“Through media reports, the attorney general stated Wisconsin is not one of the states agreeing to settle the Purdue Pharma case at this time.

We hope those reporters have signed non-disclosure agreements, because they are getting ‘confidential’ information from the attorney general that he refused to share with members of the Joint Committee on Finance.

It’s clear the attorney general did not need signed secrecy agreements to share case information. Now we know there wasn’t an ’emergency’ settlement to present to the committee two weeks ago. The attorney general should stop playing games, follow the law, and work with the Joint Committee on Finance.”

Kaul and the JFC co-chairs are currently involved in a dispute over lawsuit settlements. A law passed during last December’s lame-duck session requires the AG to get the approval for settlements from the Joint Finance Committee – but there is no process in place determining how that would work.

The Post reports that under terms of a plan negotiated for months, the Sacklers would relinquish control of Stamford, Conn.-based Purdue Pharma. The company would declare bankruptcy and be resurrected as a trust whose main purpose would be to combat the opioid epidemic.

State’s first 2019 human case of West Nile Virus confirmed

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The year’s first confirmed human case of West Nile Virus in Wisconsin has been reported. That case is reported in Northeastern Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is advising residents to continue to protect themselves against mosquito bites. West Nile virus is spread to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and is not spread person to person.

Mosquitoes get the virus by feeding on infected birds. The majority of human WNV cases occur during the months of August and September. But the risk of contracting WNV and other mosquito-borne illnesses is present any time mosquitoes are active, so be vigilant throughout the rest of the summer and into early fall.

Data reveals impacts of suicide in Wisconsin

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If you or someone you know is struggling, call the Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1.800.273.8255 or text “HOPELINE” to 741741.

New data shows the impact of suicide in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has released findings from its most recent analysis of state suicide deaths and suicide-related injury. It’s part of an effort to update Wisconsin’s suicide prevention plan and reduce the number of suicide attempts and deaths.

This analysis found:

The state’s suicide rate rose 40% between 2000 and 2017.
From 2013-2017, suicide rates in Wisconsin were highest among individuals ages 45-54.
Of all state deaths by firearm from 2013-2017, 71% were suicide deaths.
In 2017, the majority of individuals who died by suicide in Wisconsin were male.
In 2017, suicide was the second leading cause of death among adolescents in Wisconsin.

Tuesday is Suicide Prevention Day, and September is Suicide Awareness Month.

State Representative Joan Ballweg says suicide remains a difficult topic for people to grapple with. “I think one of the things that prevents people from reaching out for treatment is that there is a stigma, that there’s something wrong with you that is not going to be solved, that people are not going to be able to overcome,” said the lawmaker, who chairs the Speaker’s Task Force on Suicide Prevention.

“Encouraging people to get into treatment, whether it is a behavioral health condition, or suicidal ideation, that conversation should be normalized.”

The task force held its last hearing this week. Members expect to have recommendations ready for the legislature to consider this session.

American Lung Association sees need to increase age to buy tobacco and vaping products

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The American Lung Association is all-in, on a bill to raise the age to buy tobacco and vape products in Wisconsin. The bipartisan legislation would raise the age to 21, and the Lung Association’s Donna Wininsky said that would put it on an equal footing with alcohol. “These are both things that can alder brain chemicals and are addictive. And we would prefer to not have teenagers using them.”

Research shows that people are far less likely to start smoking once they’re 21. “It’s close to a 90 percent rate, that if someone hasn’t started using tobacco products by the time they turn 21, the chances are just very, very slim that they’re going to pick it up afterword.”

Wininsky is skeptical of claims by the vaping industry that its products are not meant for teenagers to use. “I don’t think an industry names and flavors products like ‘bubble gum’ and ‘cotton candy’ and ‘chocolate’ and all of the other flavors that both the tobacco and the vaping industries use, unless they are intentionally targeting kids.”

The legislation is being offered against the backdrop of growing public health concerns surrounding vaping, and vaping products concerning THC.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said last week that 24 of the 27 people with confirmed lung injuries reported vaping oil with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

While many users get sick, dealers of THC vape cartridges get rich. Police in Milwaukee in recent months made arrests of suspected dealers selling drugs that included THC cartridges. One trio of dealers was making $800,000 to $2 million a month selling THC cartridges, according to a criminal complaint cited by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.-

Health officials warn: stop vaping THC products

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If you’re vaping products containing THC, be advised that there’s no way of knowing what’s in them. John Meiman is Chief Medical Officer with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, which is advising people to stop vaping such products.

“Because it’s not a legal product, there’s no regulation that could . . . potentially control what can be in those products. We don’t know what chemicals could be in there, we don’t know if any of them could be causing illness, and because they’re unregulated there’s no way that we can ensure that there’s safety.

More than two dozen people in Wisconsin have been hospitalized with severe chemical pneumonia, or lung inflammation. The majority of those cases have been linked to vaping products containing THC. In addition to DHS, the City of Milwaukee Health Department also issued an alert, urging residents to stop vaping. The warnings follow the nation’s first reported death attributed to vaping, reported by public health officials in Illinois.

Earlier this week, legislators in Madison introduced a bill which would increase the age to purchase e-cigarettes and tobacco products in Wisconsin to 21.

“Eighty percent of our graduating seniors turn 18 in high school. And so it’s so easy for kids to get their hands on vaping products, because they know somebody in their school who’s 18,” state Senator Howard Marklein said. “The goal of this bill to reduce the access for kids to get their hands on tobacco and vaping products.”

 

Dental therapy license bill gets public hearing

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At the Capitol on Wednesday, a Senate Committee heard hours of testimony on a bill to create a dental therapist license in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Dental Association President Patrick Tepe is opposed. Authorizing dental therapy will not impact the cost of dental care. It will not bring the cost down for patients, it will not bring the cost down for the state. It will not bring the cost down for dental insurers, or for employers. The only one that’s going to save is the employer of the dental therapist” Tepe told members of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.  “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but we have to be clear on it. This is not going to save the Medicaid program money. This is not going to save the state money, this is not going to save the patients money.”

Supporters said the bill is designed to be part of efforts to address a dentist shortage in rural areas and under served communities. Dental therapists are a step below a dentist, but can work in coordination with them.

Matt Crespin is with the Children’s Health Alliance of Wisconsin.”You know we talked about is the cost going to go down? Well it’s not going to go down, because you know what else isn’t going to go down, the quality of care that’s being provided to the patient. Because those dental therapists are trained at the same standards that dentists are trained to,” Crespin said.

T.R. Williams with the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association said that care provided by dental therapists is in no way “second class”

“So although it hasn’t been declared necessarily that dental therapy is somehow supporting second tier service for second class people, I want to be super explicit in my testimony to say that the legacy of community health centers, the pedigree of our providers at all levels in the oral health, primary health and behavioral health that we do, doesn’t sit well with second class service for second class citizens.”

In addition to the state Dental Association, the bill is opposed by Marquette University, home to Wisconsin’s only dental school.

Scammers promise free DNA testing kits in new robocalls

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It’s a new twist on an old phone scam.

A new robocall scam making the rounds promises a free DNA testing kit. “The caller might say the test is a free way to get early diagnoses for diseases like cancer or just that it’s a free test and people are often interested in their DNA.”

State consumer protection administrator Michelle Reinen says all the scammers want is your social security information, because it’s covered by Medicare. That’s a lie. 

“It’s really important to know that Medicare does not market DNA testing kits to the general public. Medicare doesn’t do random unsolicited phone calls to consumers asking for their personally identifiable information.”

Reinen says the scammers are spoofing their phone numbers to look like they’re calling from Washington DC. 

If you get one of these phone calls, it’s best to just hang up or delete the voice mail.

Report: booze & opioids could be linked to drop in Wisconsin life expectancy

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A new report finds life expectancy in Wisconsin is on a downward trend. Life expectancy here has dropped for two years in a row. For a baby born in Wisconsin between 2015 and 2017 it’s 80 years, down from 80.2 years for babies born two years earlier.

A big reason, according to findings released Monday, is increased deaths linked to abuse of opioids and alcohol. Drug and alcohol deaths in Wisconsin have more than tripled since 1999, from 593 to over 19 hundred in 2017.

“Going back to 1999, the alcohol death in Wisconsin was about 7 per 100,000. That was very close to the national rate,” said Mark Sommerhauser, Communications Director/Researcher with Wisconsin Policy Forum. “By 2017, the most recent year that we have data for, in Wisconsin our death rate was about 13 and 1/2, almost 14 per 100,000 compared to the national rate which was about 11 per 100,000.

When it comes to opioid related deaths in the state, 65 died in 1999 compared to just over 900 2 years ago. The findings contained in the report mirror a national trend driven by increasing rates of death from drugs, alcohol or suicide

Drug deaths in Milwaukee County on record pace

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Drug deaths statewide were down in 2018, but Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are on pace for a near-record high number this year. The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office tweets that if the pace of overdose deaths continues, 423 people in Milwaukee will die from drugs this year.

That would be the highest number in almost a decade. District Attorney John Chisolm calls the spike in drug deaths an “imminent public health crisis.” The Journal Sentinel reports that the Medical Examiner’s Office has responded to 14 probable overdose deaths since Friday morning, including three people dying in less than one hour Sunday.

Wisconsin opioid deaths dropped in 2018

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Drugs (PHOTO: Jackie Johnson)

Wisconsin opioid deaths dropped 10 percent in 2018. The 838 opioid deaths in the state were the fewest since 2015, according to the Department of Health Services. DHS has also unveiled a new online tool, Data Direct: Opioids. It includes the most up-to-date information the agency has collected on opioid use, hospitalizations and deaths.

The data shows:

  • emergency room visits for opioid-related overdoses increased by 64 percent from 2014-18. Still, inpatient stays for overdoses dropped over that period by 15 percent.
  • the 838 deaths were down from 932 in 2017. In 2015, there were 850 opioid-related deaths.
  • an estimated one in six Wisconsinites were prescribed and used an opioid in the past year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control released preliminary data for 2018 which indicates that the number of Americans who died from drug overdoses fell in 2018, following years of increases. That includes about 47,600 opioid deaths in 2018 compared to 49,000 in 2017.

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