The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "Pain killers" ...
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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription
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High on Prison Life
The authors uncovered the excessive prescribing of very strong and highly addictive pain-killers in Washington State prisons.
Tags: FOIA; drug abuse; prisons; Morphine; Oxycodone; inmates
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Cyber Drug-Dealers
NBC 10 investigators found that children may be able to get their hands on powerful drugs without even leaving home and with no prescription, and an interviewee told them that one does not even need money to get narcotics off the internet.
Tags: TAPE; narcotics; drug; pill; prescription; children; kids; narcotics; addict; addiction; pharmacy; doctor; cyber; cyber dealer; pain killer; antidepressant; steroid; hydrocodin; oxycontin; codeine; Valium; Xanax; tablet; bodybuilder.
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Pain Killers
Illegal use of prescription drugs remains a widespread problem in Pennsylvania. As reporters found out 20 people in 2001 and 2002 died from an overdose of a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs. The federal government has identified Pennsylvania as one of the states with a high rate of prescription drugs being available illegally but the state government has done little to combat the problem.
Tags: Prescription Drugs; pain killers; drug overdose; illegal drugs; illegal prescription drugs; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; National Drug Intelligence Center; FOIA
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Pain Killers
The York Daily Record reports about 20 people that have died from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs between 2001 and 2002. According to the story "the federal government has identify Pennsylvania as one of several states with a substantial prescription drug problem. However the state does not track the specific drugs responsible in fatal drug overdoses." In 11 of the 20 prescription drug cases, "the York County coroner found OxyContin or oxycodone in the people's systems or among the drugs that they were taking."
Tags: overdose; pain killers; prescription drugs; Oxycontin; oxycodone; illegal drugs; pharmacy; abuse; health care workers; doctors; DEA; FOIA
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The New Addition
Abuse of prescription narcotics in Las Vegas has risen and lead to the quadrupling of fatal overdoses since the decade before. "The trend reflects the extraordinarily high use of narcotic painkillers by Nevadans," that ranks them "fourth nationally in per person consumption of methadone, morphine and oxycodone."
Tags: drugs; pain killers; overdose; Drug Enforcement Administration; Nevada;
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Playing With Pain Killers
Newsweek reports on the increased use of painkillers and how many Americans have turned their prescription into an addiction. "In 1999 an estimated 4 million Americans over the age of 12 used prescription pain relievers, sedatives and stimulants for 'nonmedical' reasons in the past month, with almost half saying they'd done so for the first time." Experts and police report the drugs are easy to get and have a wide variety of users. Therefore, making it sometimes difficult to track users down. Doctors and pharmaceutical companies agree that education for prescription pain relievers is crucial to prevent misuse. In addition, Newsweek reports on Hazard, Ky., a small town that has been overtaken with the drug OxyContin and Cindy McCain, wife of Senator John McCain reports on her personal battle with pain pills since 1989,
Tags: prescription pain relievers; Drug Enforcement Administration; painkillers; National Institute on Drug Abuse; doctors; pharmacies