WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden touted the potential cost savings of Medicare’s first-ever price negotiations for widely used prescription drugs on Tuesday as he struggles to convince Americans that he’s improved their lives as he runs for reelection.

The drugs include the blood thinner Eliquis, diabetes treatment Jardiance and eight other medications. The negotiation process was authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act, which Biden signed last year, capping decades of debate over whether the federal government should be allowed to haggle with pharmaceutical companies.

Any lower prices won’t take effect for three years, and the path forward could be further complicated by litigation from drugmakers and heavy criticism from Republicans.

But the effort is a centerpiece of Biden’s reelection pitch as the Democrat tries to show Americans he’s deserving of a second term because of the work he’s doing to lower costs while the country is struggling with inflation. The drug negotiations, like many of Biden’s biggest policy moves, will take time to play out, and his challenge is to persuade the public to be patient.

“For all of you out there, I get it, and millions of Americans get it,” Biden said at the White House. “I promise you. I’m going to have your back and I’ll never stop fighting for you on this issue.”

He noted that he got “no help from the other team” — meaning Republicans — when it came to lowering prescription costs.

The drugs on the list announced Tuesday accounted for $3.4 billion in out-of-pocket costs for Medicare patients last year.

The Medicare program paid more than $50 billion for the drugs between June 1, 2022, and May 31, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.

That includes more than $16 billion on Eliquis, a total that does not count discounts or rebates that are already negotiated for the drug. The drug from Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb treats blood clots in the legs and lungs and reduces the risk of stroke in people with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation.

The diabetes treatments Jardiance from Eli Lilly and Co. and Boehringer Ingelheim and Januvia from Merck made the list. It also included Amgen’s autoimmune disease treatment Enbrel and Entresto from Novartis, which is used to treat heart failure.

Other drugs on the list include AstraZeneca’s diabetes and heart failure treatment Farxiga and three drugs from Johnson & Johnson: the blood thinner Xarelto, the blood cancer treatment Imbruvica and it’s biggest seller, Stelara, an IV treatment for psoriasis and other inflammatory disorders.

The list also includes several versions of Novo Nordisk’s Fiasp, a fast-acting insulin taken around meals.

The announcement Tuesday is another significant step toward taming drug pricing under the Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed by Biden last year. The law also calls for a $2,000 annual cap on how much people with Medicare have to pay out of pocket for drugs starting in 2025.

In addition, the law already caps out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 a month for Medicare patients.

“We are here today with the firm belief that in the United States of America, no senior should have to choose between whether they fill their prescription or fill their fridge with food,” Vice President Kamala Harris said.

For drugs on the list released Tuesday, the government aims to negotiate the lowest maximum fair price. That could help some patients who have coverage but still face big bills like coinsurance payments when they get a prescription.

About 9% of Medicare beneficiaries age 65 and older said in 2021 that they did not fill a prescription or skipped a drug dose due to cost, according to research by the Commonwealth Fund, which studies health care issues.

Currently, pharmacy benefit managers that run Medicare prescription plans negotiate rebates off a drug’s price. Those rebates sometimes help reduce premiums customers pay for coverage. But they may not directly change what a patient spends at the pharmacy counter.

The new drug price negotiations aim “to basically make drugs more affordable while also still allowing for profits to be made,” said Gretchen Jacobson, who researches Medicare issues at Commonwealth.

The federal government will benefit most from any lowered drug prices, noted Larry Levitt, an executive vice president for health policy at KFF, another non-profit that studies health care. But he said that if Medicare spends less on prescription drugs, then premiums for everyone with its drug coverage also should fall.

Drug companies that refuse to be a part of the new negotiation process will be heavily taxed.

The pharmaceutical industry has been gearing up for months to fight these rules. The lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said Tuesday that the drug list announcement stemmed from “a rushed process focused on short-term political gain rather than what is best for patients.”

“Many of the medicines selected for price setting already have significant rebates and discounts due to the robust private market negotiation that occurs in the Part D program today,” PhRMA CEO Stephen J. Ubl said in a statement.

PhRMA representatives also have said pharmacy benefit managers can still restrict access to drugs with negotiated prices by moving the drugs to a tier of their formulary — a list of covered drugs — that would require higher out-of-pocket payments. Pharmacy benefit managers also could require patients to try other drugs first or seek approval before a prescription can be covered.

PhRMA and several drugmakers have filed lawsuits over the administration’s plan.

Republican lawmakers also have blasted the Biden administration, saying companies might pull back on introducing new drugs that could be subjected to future haggling. They’ve also questioned whether the government knows enough to suggest prices for drugs.

CMS plans to meet this fall with drugmakers that have a drug on its list, and government officials say they also plan to hold patient-focused listening sessions. By February 2024, the government will make its first offer on a maximum fair price and then give drugmakers time to respond.

CMS aims to add 15 more drugs to its negotiation list for 2027 and another 15 for 2028. It then plans to add up to 20 more for each year after that.

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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington lawmakers approved and Gov. Jay Inslee quickly signed a major new drug policy Tuesday that keeps controlled substances illegal while boosting resources to help those struggling with addiction.

A compromise reached a day earlier by Democratic and Republican leaders sought to bridge a gap between liberals who believe drugs should be decriminalized and conservatives who insist the threat of jail is necessary to force people into treatment.

The law retains criminal penalties for drug possession, making it a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail for the first two offenses and up to a year after that. But police and prosecutors would be encouraged to divert cases for treatment or other services, and the measure provides $44 million for investments that include methadone mobile units, crisis centers and short-term housing for people with substance-use disorders.

“It is our deep hope that this will help people away from the scourge of addiction, that it will reduce crime overall in our communities and will help our children be safe from the scourge of drug addiction,” Inslee said before signing the bill.

The Senate voted 43-6 in favor; the House 83-13 in favor.

Lawmakers said the bill struck a balance between public order and compassion for those struggling with substance abuse.

Legislators were under pressure to pass a bill not just because of the soaring addiction crisis, but because of a self-imposed deadline: A temporary, 2-year-old law that makes intentional drug possession illegal is due to expire July 1.

Unless the compromise became law, drug possession — even of fentanyl and other dangerous opiates — would have become decriminalized under state law. The only other state that has tried decriminalizing drug possession is neighboring Oregon, where the experiment is off to a rocky start.

Several lawmakers made emotional statements about losing close relatives to addiction. Sen. Ron Muzzall, an Oak Harbor Republican, broke up as he described how his niece, Rachel Marshall – the creator of the popular Seattle company Rachel’s Ginger Beer – died last month.

“If we cannot offer hope for these people that are in the throes of addiction, what good are we?” he said. “I failed. My niece, whom I loved and had a great relationship. She hid that addiction from me.”

Another Republican, Sen. John Braun, of Centralia, lost a nephew two years ago and said in recent weeks he has often thought of him and what the state could do differently to help others.

“If we want to save people’s lives, if we want to help people -– and I think everyone in this chamber does -– we have to try something different,” he said.

Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, a Tacoma Democrat, said she supported the bill as a first step. But she urged her colleagues to be ready to do more to shore up housing and behavioral health resources.

“We’ve got so much work to do beyond this bill to actually achieve anything that’s in it,” Trudeau said. “We’re not going to achieve it with one bill. … And we are not going to achieve it by simply criminalizing those that are deep in their addiction, deep in poverty, and deep in pain and trauma.”

Under the law, the sale of drug paraphernalia, such as glass tubes for smoking fentanyl, is a civil infraction. But possession is not banned, and public health programs are allowed to distribute such materials as well as test strips that can detect the presence of fentanyl or other substances in drugs.

The law allows cities and counties to ban drug paraphernalia and allows them to regulate recovery residences and harm-reduction programs such as those that provide methadone or other medication to treat addiction, just as they regulate other essential public services.

In 2021, the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state law making drug possession a felony as unconstitutional because it did not require prosecutors to prove someone knowingly had the drugs. Washington was the only state in the country without that requirement.

In response, lawmakers made intentional drug possession a misdemeanor and required police to refer offenders to evaluation or treatment for their first two offenses. But there was no obvious way for officers to track how many times someone had been referred, and the availability of treatment remained inadequate. Lawmakers made the measure temporary and gave themselves until this July 1 to come up with a long-term policy.

Inslee called lawmakers back to the Washington Statehouse for the special session after they failed to pass a new drug law last month.

“This has been a longer period than many bills to get to my desk,” Inslee said. “But I do believe this process produced a better bill.”

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File # IC230070002

Details:

On January 7, 2023, the John Benoit Detention Center’s Correctional Intelligence Bureau (CIB) contacted the Thermal Station Investigations Bureau regarding intercepted mail saturated with methamphetamine and fentanyl. The investigation revealed the mail was addressed to a specific inmate, however; the sender’s name and return address differed with each piece of mail. Through their joint investigation, CIB and the Thermal Station Investigations Bureau, identified the suspect as, Amy Buenrostro, 33-years-old of Indio.

On January 25, 2023, at 4:30 PM, Buenrostro was located at a residence in the 44500 block of Sun Gold Street, in the city of Indio. The Thermal Station Investigations Bureau authored a search warrant for the residence, which was severed by members of the Coachella Valley Narcotics Task Force. During the service of the search warrant, Buenrostro was taken into custody without incident. Buenrostro was booked at the John Benoit Detention Center, in the city of Indio.

The Thermal Station Investigations Bureau is asking anyone with additional information to contact Investigator James at the Thermal Sheriff’s Station by calling (760)-863-8856.

If you wish to remain anonymous, call Valley Crimestoppers at (760) 341-7867, or submit a tip at, valleycrimestoppers.org.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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The United States has an addiction problem, but we are far from number one in the world with drug problems. According to the most recent statistics, we are number eight. Iran is number one with approximately 14 million addicted to drugs. However the percentage of the American population on prescription pills is increasing day by day and has increased up to almost 50% in recent years.

Meth is the illegal drug of choice because it is the easiest to access. Fentanyl is a johnny-come-lately compared to heroin and cocaine. Fentanyl is not an illegal drug. It is widely prescribed as a pain killer for cancer and other types of illness. A prescription is required.

We manufacture opioids like candy because of demand. Most drug addictions have their beginnings in the family medicine cabinets. Doctors over-prescribe painkillers which makes them more available in the home.

You might expect the largest states to have the highest death rates. Not true. In numbers, they have the most deaths from overdoses but not by ranking per population. That goes to West Virginia with 81.4. The most recent number annually was 1,330. California’s ranking was 21, having a total of 8,908. West Virginia has become the poorest and least progressive state, while California is the wealthiest and most progressive. Why is this? The least progressive and poorest states have less to look forward to and are the most likely to sink into despair.

But let’s be realistic folks. Drug sales, legal or illegal, are part of the economy. Pharma keeps belting opiates out in the assembly line rapidly. Why, then, are drugs imported and do they all come from south of the border? To answer the first part of the question, it is simple economics. There would be no imports if there was not a demand. Supply and demand. As simple as that. We are an addicted nation.

While our politicians scream bloody murder about the importation of opiates from Mexico, there isn’t a port in the company that doesn’t have more access than the south simply because we do not have the means to stop drugs from coming in. So what are we doing to suppress the desire for drugs? Why do we talk but not show what drugs do to us? One video of some young boy or girl dying in the hospital or being found dead or dying will better teach the dangers of overdosing than all the talk in the world. Seeing is more likely believing. Drug addiction should be a required course from kindergarten through high school, just as history and science are taught.

So, the only way to stop the production of drugs and the ultimate overdose and death is to stop the demand. Duh! Just sayin’.

• DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

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Children struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12 and surgery for those as young as 13, according to new guidelines released Monday.

The longstanding practice of “watchful waiting,” or delaying treatment to see whether children and teens outgrow or overcome obesity on their own only worsens the problem that affects more than 14.4 million young people in the U.S. Left untreated, obesity can lead to lifelong health problems, including high blood pressure, diabetes and depression.

“Waiting doesn’t work,” said Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, co-author of the first guidance on childhood obesity in 15 years from the American Academy of Pediatrics. “What we see is a continuation of weight gain and the likelihood that they’ll have (obesity) in adulthood.”

For the first time, the group’s guidance sets ages at which kids and teens should be offered medical treatments such as drugs and surgery — in addition to intensive diet, exercise and other behavior and lifestyle interventions, said Eneli, director of the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

In general, doctors should offer adolescents 12 and older who have obesity access to appropriate drugs and teens 13 and older with severe obesity referrals for weight-loss surgery, though situations may vary.

The guidelines aim to reset the inaccurate view of obesity as “a personal problem, maybe a failure of the person’s diligence,” said Dr. Sandra Hassink, medical director for the AAP Institute for Healthy Childhood weight, and a co-author of the guidelines.

“This is not different than you have asthma and now we have an inhaler for you,” Hassink said.

Young people who have a body mass index that meets or exceeds the 95th percentile for kids of the same age and gender are considered obese. Kids who reach or exceed the 120th percentile are considered to have severe obesity. BMI is a measure of body size based on a calculation of height and weight.

Obesity affects nearly 20% of kids and teens in the U.S. and about 42% of adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The group’s guidance takes into consideration that obesity is a biological problem and that the condition is a complex, chronic disease, said Aaron Kelly, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota.

“Obesity is not a lifestyle problem. It is not a lifestyle disease,” he said. “It predominately emerges from biological factors.”

The guidelines come as new drug treatments for obesity in kids have emerged, including approval late last month of Wegovy, a weekly injection, for use in children ages 12 and older. Different doses of the drug, called semaglutide, are also used under different names to treat diabetes. A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, helped teens reduce their BMI by about 16% on average, better than the results in adults.

Within days of the Dec. 23 authorization, pediatrician Dr. Claudia Fox had prescribed the drug for one of her patients, a 12-year-old girl.

“What it offers patients is the possibility of even having an almost normal body mass index,” said Fox, also a weight management specialist at the University of Minnesota. “It’s like a whole different level of improvement.”

The drug affects how the pathways between the brain and the gut regulate energy, said Dr. Justin Ryder, an obesity researcher at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago.

“It works on how your brain and stomach communicate with one another and helps you feel more full than you would be,” he said.

Still, specific doses of semaglutide and other anti-obesity drugs have been hard to get because of recent shortages caused by manufacturing problems and high demand, spurred in part by celebrities on TikTok and other social media platforms boasting about enhanced weight loss.

In addition, many insurers won’t pay for the medication, which costs about $1,300 a month. “I sent the prescription yesterday,” Fox said. “I’m not holding my breath that insurance will cover it.”

One expert in pediatric obesity cautioned that while kids with obesity must be treated early and intensively, he worries that some doctors may turn too quickly to drugs or surgery.

“It’s not that I’m against the medications,” said Dr. Robert Lustig, a longtime specialist in pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco. “I’m against the willy-nilly use of those medications without addressing the cause of the problem.”

Lustig said children must be evaluated individually to understand all of the factors that contribute to obesity. He has long blamed too much sugar for the rise in obesity. He urges a sharp focus on diet, particularly ultraprocessed foods that are high in sugar and low in fiber.

Dr. Stephanie Byrne, a pediatrician at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said she’d like more research about the drug’s efficacy in a more diverse group of children and about potential long-term effects before she begins prescribing it regularly.

“I would want to see it be used on a little more consistent basis,” she said. “And I would have to have that patient come in pretty frequently to be monitored.”

At the same time, she welcomed the group’s new emphasis on prompt, intensive treatment for obesity in kids.

“I definitely think this is a realization that diet and exercise is not going to do it for a number of teens who are struggling with this – maybe the majority,” she said.

—- The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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File # MV212210192

Details:

On August 9, 2021, about 2:45 PM, Moreno Valley Sheriff’s Station Deputies were dispatched to a check the welfare call in the 10000 block of Sparrow Court city of Moreno Valley. Upon deputies’ arrival, it was determined a 25-year-old female adult was deceased. The case was immediately assumed by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Overdose Death Investigations and Narcotics Unit (ODIN). It was determined the decedent was a victim of a Fentanyl poisoning. The investigation continued over the next several months and a suspect, John P. Biagianti a 30-year-old resident of of Upland, was identified as being the suspect responsible for selling the Fentanyl that killed Dauss.

On Friday April 8, 2022, Biagianti was located by ODIN personnel as well as the Drug Enforcement Agency. Biagianti was taken into custody without incident and booked into federal custody. This investigation is ongoing and anyone with additional information is encouraged to contact Master Investigator Jim Peters at 951-955-1700. As a reminder, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department wants to remind citizens of the dangers of illicit narcotics many which may contain Fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 100 times stronger than morphine and can cause death or serious bodily harm.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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As the addiction and overdose crisis that has gripped the U.S. for two decades turns even deadlier, state governments are scrambling for ways to stem the destruction wrought by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.

In statehouses across the country, lawmakers have been considering and adopting laws on two fronts: reducing the risk to users and increasing the penalties for dealing fentanyl or mixing it with other drugs. Meanwhile, Republican state attorneys general are calling for more federal action, while some GOP governors are deploying National Guard units with a mission that includes stopping the flow of fentanyl from Mexico.

“It’s a fine line to help people and try to get people clean, and at the same time incarcerate and get the drug dealers off the streets,” said Nathan Manning, a Republican state senator in Ohio who is sponsoring legislation to make it clear that materials used to test drugs for fentanyl are legal.

The urgency is heightened because of the deepening impact of the drugs. Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the nation had hit a grim milestone. For the first time, more than 100,000 Americans had died of drug overdoses over a 12-month period. About two-thirds of the deaths were linked to fentanyl and other synthetic drugs, which can be 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, heroin or prescription opioids.

The recent case of five West Point cadets who overdosed on fentanyl-laced cocaine during spring break in Florida put the dangers and pervasiveness of the fentanyl crisis back in the spotlight.

The chemical precursors to the drugs are being shipped largely from China to Mexico, where much of the illicit fentanyl supply is produced in labs before being smuggled into the U.S.

While users sometimes seek out fentanyl specifically, it and other synthetics with similar properties are often mixed with other drugs or formed into counterfeit pills so users often don’t know they’re taking it.

Advocates say test strips can help prevent accidental overdoses of drugs laced with fentanyl. The strips are given out at needle exchanges and sometimes at concerts or other events where drugs are expected to be sold or used.

Thomas Stuber, chief legislative officer at The LCADA Way, a drug treatment organization in Ohio that serves Lorain County and nearby areas, has been pushing for the test strip legislation. It also would ease access to naloxone, a drug that can be used to revive people when they’re having opioid overdoses.

“This is a harm-reduction approach that has received a lot of acceptance,” he said. “We cannot treat somebody if they’re dead.”

Since last year, at least a half-dozen states have enacted similar laws and at least a dozen others have considered them, according to research by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In West Virginia, the state hardest hit by opioids per capita, lawmakers passed a bill this month to legalize the testing strips. It now heads to the governor.

The measure was sponsored by Republican lawmakers. But state Delegate Mike Pushkin, a Democrat whose district includes central Charleston, has also been pushing for more access to fentanyl strips. He said the situation got worse last year when a state law tightened regulations on needle exchanges, causing some of them to close.

Pushkin, who also is in long-term addiction recovery, is pleased with passage of the testing strip bill but upset with another measure passed this month that would increase the penalties for trafficking fentanyl. That bill also would create a new crime of adding fentanyl to another drug.

“Their initial reaction is, ‘We have to do something,’” he said. “It’s not just about doing something, it’s about doing the right thing that actually has results.”

But for many lawmakers, making sure that tough criminal penalties apply to fentanyl is a priority.

California Assemblywoman Janet Nguyen, a Republican, introduced a measure that would make penalties for dealing fentanyl just as harsh as those for selling cocaine or heroin. The Republican represents Orange County, where there were more than 600 reported fentanyl-related deaths last year.

“This is sending messages to those who aren’t afraid of selling these drugs that there’s a longer, bigger penalty than you might think,” said Nguyen, whose bill failed to advance from her chamber’s public safety committee in a 5-2 vote last week. She said after the bill failed that she was considering trying again.

She said committee members stressed compassion for drug users, something she said she agrees with.

“The less available these pills are out there, the better it is,” Nguyen said. “And that is going after the drug dealer.”

The same day her measure failed to advance, a Democratic lawmaker in California announced a different bill to increase fentanyl-dealing penalties.

The National Conference of State Legislatures found 12 states with fentanyl-specific drug trafficking or possession laws as of last year. Similar measures have been introduced or considered since the start of 2021 in at least 19 states, the Associated Press found in an analysis of bills compiled by LegiScan. That does not include measures to add more synthetic opioids to controlled substance lists to mirror federal law; those have been adopted in many states, with bipartisan support.

Fentanyl has been in the spotlight in Colorado since February, when five people were found dead in a suburban Denver apartment from overdoses of fentanyl mixed with cocaine.

Under state law, possession with intent to distribute less than 14 grams of fentanyl is an offense normally punishable by two to four years in prison. But fentanyl is so potent that 14 grams can represent up to 700 lethal doses, under a calculation used by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.

“It’s making it impossible to hold the dealer accountable for the deadliness of the drugs they’re peddling,” Colorado House Speaker Alec Garnett, a Democrat, said in an interview.

He and a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week unveiled a bill also backed by Democratic Gov. Jared Polis that would increase penalties for dealers with smaller amounts of fentanyl and in cases where the drug leads to a death. The legislation also would increase the accessibility of naloxone and test strips while steering people who possess fentanyl into education and treatment programs.

Maritza Perez, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that advocates for harm-reduction measures, is skeptical of the legislation that would increase criminal penalties.

“We have the largest incarceration rate in the entire world and we’re also setting records in terms of overdose deaths,” she said.

Democratic governors are focusing primarily on harm reduction methods. Among them is Illinois Gov. Jay Pritzker, who released a broad overdose action plan last month.

Several Republican governors and attorneys general have responded to the rising death toll with administrative enforcement efforts and by pushing for more federal intervention.

Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called for states to help secure the border with Mexico. Along with trying to keep people from entering the U.S., stopping the flow of fentanyl was cited as a reason. Several other Republican governors have sent contingents of state troopers or National Guard units.

The Texas Military Department said that from March 2021 through earlier this month, its troops near the border confiscated more than 1,200 pounds (540 kilograms) of fentanyl. By comparison, federal authorities reported confiscating about 11,000 pounds (4,990 kilograms) in 2021 — still a fraction of what entered the country.

Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice filed about 2,700 cases involving crimes related to the distribution of fentanyl and similar synthetic drugs, up nearly tenfold from 2017. Even so, Republican state officials are critical of federal efforts to stop fentanyl from entering the country.

In January, 16 GOP state attorneys general sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on him to exert more pressure on China and Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl. Those are steps that Dr. Rahul Gupta, the director of National Drug Control Policy, said are already being taken.

In March, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey called on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for more enforcement on fentanyl trafficking and harsher penalties.

“Fentanyl is killing Americans of all walks of life in unprecedented numbers,” Morrisey said in a statement emailed to the AP, “and the federal government must respond with full force, across the board, using every tool available to stem the tide of death.”

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On Saturday, December 18th, 2021, at 1:30 PM, Region 2 Gang Task Force Officers contacted George Hernandez as he exited his vehicle in the 400 Block of East Theodore Street in the city of Banning. Hernandez had an active misdemeanor warrant for drug possession and was detained.

A search warrant was authored and granted for Hernandez’s vehicle after a firearm was observed on the front driver’s seat. Upon searching the vehicle, Task Force Officers found 1/2 pound of methamphetamine, 30.3 grams of heroin, 25 Hydrocodone pills, 15 suspected fentanyl “M30” pills, and a loaded black semi-automatic handgun.

Hernandez is a convicted felon and is prohibited from possessing any firearms or ammunition. Hernandez was booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility for the following charges:

• Felon in possession of a firearm
• Felon in possession of ammunition
• Possession of a Firearm with Narcotics
• Possession of Methamphetamine for Sales
• Possession of Opiates for Sales

The Riverside County Gang Task Force is a collaborative effort of several law enforcement agencies with the goal of combating criminal street gangs. The San Gorgonio Special Operations Regional Gang Task Force is one of six teams which compose the Riverside County Regional Gang Task Force. The San Gorgonio Special Operations Gang Task Force is staffed with members from the Banning Police Department, Beaumont Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact Detective Aidan Christopherson with the Riverside County Regional Gang Task force by calling (951) 766-2553.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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“The aim of our study was to identify individual and prescription opioid-related law provision combinations that were most predictive of high opioid dispensing and high-dose opioid dispensing in U.S. counties,” said Silvia Martins, MD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. “Our results showed that not all prescription drug monitoring programs laws are created equal or influence effectiveness, and there is a critical need for better evidence on how law variations might affect opioid-related outcomes. We found that a machine learning approach could help to identify what determines a successful prescription opioid dispensing model.”

Using 162 prescription opioid law provisions capturing prescription drug monitoring program access, reporting and administration features, pain management clinic provisions, and prescription opioid limits, the researchers examined various approaches and models to attempt to identify laws most predictive of county-level and high-dose dispensing in different overdose epidemic phases—the prescription opioid phase (2006-2009), the heroin phase (2010-2012), and the fentanyl phase (2013-2016)—to further explore pattern shifts over time. 

PDMP patient data access provisions most consistently predicted high-dispensing and high-dose dispensing counties. Pain management clinic-related provisions did not generally predict dispensing measures in the prescription opioid phase but became more discriminant of high dispensing and high-dose dispensing counties over time, especially in the fentanyl period. 

“While further research employing diverse study designs is needed to better understand how opioid laws generally, and specifically, can limit inappropriate opioid prescribing and dispensing to reduce opioid-related harms, we feel strongly that the results of our machine learning approach to identify salient law provisions and combinations associated with dispensing rates will be key for testing which law provisions and combinations of law provision work best in future research,” noted Martins.

The researchers observe that there are at least two major challenges to evaluating the impacts of prescription opioid laws on opioid dispensing. First, U.S. states often adopt widely different versions of the same general type of law, making it particularly important to examine the specific provisions that make these laws more or less effective in regards to opioid-related harms. Second, states tend to enact multiple law types simultaneously, making it difficult to isolate the effect of any one law or specific provisions.

“Machine learning methods are increasingly being applied to similar high-dimensional data problems, and may offer a complementary approach to other forms of policy analysis including as a screening tool to identify policies and law provision interactions that require further attention,” said Martins.

Co-authors are Emilie Bruzelius, Jeanette Stingone, Hanane Akbarnejad, Christine Mauro, Megan Marzial, Kara Rudolph, Katherine Keyes, and Deborah Hasin, Columbia University Mailman School; Katherine Wheeler-Martin and Magdalena Cerdá, NYU Grossman School of Medicine; Stephen Crystal and Hillary Samples, Rutgers University; and Corey Davis, Network for Public Health Law.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse grants DA048572, DA047347, DA048860 and DA049950; the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, grant R18 HS023258; and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the New Jersey Health Foundation, grant TR003017.

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The Golden Era Running Team has long been dedicated to drug prevention. Red Ribbon Week is a drug prevention awareness campaign observed annually on the last week of October. It began as a tribute to fallen DEA special agent Enrique Camerena in 1985. Citizens of his hometown in Calexico, California, opted to wear red ribbons to honor his sacrifice.

The movement became so popular it spread to other states when it was adopted as a national anti-drug campaign by First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1988 when she coined the phrase, “Just say no” to drugs. The DEA declared Red Ribbon Week to be the nation’s largest and longest-running drug awareness and prevention program in the country. Today, a new generation of synthetic drugs plague the nation like never before. The most deadly are Fentanyl and Carfentanil, especially among our youth.

VITAL INFORMATON REGARDING CARFENTANIL:

1. One microgram of Carfentanil, about the size of two grains of salt, is lethal.

2. Carmentalnil is produced in underground laboratories in China and shipped to the United States.

3. Carfentanil is 100 times more potent than Fentanyl, 4,000 times more potent than heroin and 10,000 times more potent than morphine.

4. Carfentanil was developed in 1974 as a tranquilizer to sedate large mammals such as elephants and was soon taken off the market because of its dangerous impact.

5. Drug dealers “cut” their supply of other drugs with Carfentanil. Unsuspecting users have no idea what they are getting.

It is an established fact that education is the most effective weapon against such lethal narcotics. The Truth About Drugs Running Team urges community partners to help save lives by incre4asing awareness of drugs and help young people make informed decisions to live their lives free of drugs.

The Truth About Drugs program is said to be the largest international, most comprehensive nongovernmental drug education and prevention program of its kind. Overseen by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, the program provides effective drug education resources: videos, booklets and other teaching aids in 20 different languages. These materials leave our young generations adequately informed of the danger of all illegal drugs.

Educators praise these hard-hitting materials for making an impact on young people, inviting them to make educated decisions about the use of drugs.

All Truth About Drugs materials are available to anyone free of charge to parents, educators and community leaders. They can be downloaded from the Drug-Free World website.

Golden Era Productions operates a state-of-the-art film and audio facility that produces audiovisual information and training materials for social betterment activities and humanitarian initiatives. For further information, visit https://www.drugfreeworld.org/drugfacts.html

The San Jacinto Valley has a large illegal drug problem, especially among unknowing young people. So it is well-advised for all to know as much as possible about prevention from overdosing or death with such drugs. One life saved is a life spared. Especially if it is your son or daughter.

Just sayin’ rustystrait@gmail.com

Rusty Strait | Senior Reporter

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