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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Overdose Awareness Day: How to Prevent Tragedy in Ore.

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Thursday, August 31, 2017   

PORTLAND, Ore. – Thursday is International Overdose Awareness Day, and medical experts in Oregon and across the nation are fighting the growing epidemic of this preventable cause of death.

The opioid epidemic has gained national attention as the number of deaths has soared in recent years.

Melissa Brewster, a pharmacist and clinical coordinator with Columbia Pacific CCO in the northwest part of the state, says the number of overdose deaths has declined slightly in Oregon, with 12 people per 100,000 deaths in 2015.

But the northwest counties still are suffering, and Tillamook County has the highest overdose rate in the state.

Brewster stresses that anyone using an opioid is at risk for overdose.

"Patients who are using opioids appropriately oftentimes think that it couldn't happen to them, that they couldn't overdose because they're using their medications appropriately and as prescribed,” she says. “But unfortunately, we know that that's not necessarily the case."

Nearly 35,000 people died across the country from opioid or heroin overdose in 2015, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency.

Brewster says Columbia Pacific is working with clinics and hospitals to find alternatives to prescribing opioids for pain management and increasing access to naloxone, a medication used to block the effects of opioids in the event of an overdose. She says Columbia Pacific also is working to increase access to medication-assisted treatments.

"We recognize that patients that are on opioids for a long time may develop physical dependence or an addiction to these medications, and the most effective treatment for opioid-use disorders is medication-assisted treatment with medications like buprenorphine or Suboxone," she states.

Brewster says there's been a dramatic decline in prescribing opioids for pain management, and that is leading to a decline in overdose deaths as well.





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