logo
Baton Rouge woman to talk about mental health, fentanyl crisis on Capitol Hill

Baton Rouge woman to talk about mental health, fentanyl crisis on Capitol Hill

Yahoo13-05-2025
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Voices in mental health, public safety, and public policy are coming together on Capitol Hill Thursday. A Baton Rouge native will speak about the fentanyl crisis and mental health.
Tonja Myles, a nationally recognized mental health advocate and CEO of Set Free Indeed Ministry, will discuss her journey battling drug addiction and using her influence to impact the lives of others.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2023, with nearly 70% of those deaths linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. In addition, Myles said suicide continues to have a devastating impact across the U.S., with rising concerns particularly among youth and veterans.
The 'Public Safety, Public Health, Public Hope' event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
The Next Generation: Breaking Fentanyl's Grip
Judge gives IRS green light to share migrants' taxpayer information with ICE
Baton Rouge woman to talk about mental health, fentanyl crisis on Capitol Hill
Republican tax bill would add $3.7 trillion to the national deficit: JCT
Inflation rose in April, reversing March decline
NFL player hosting football camp in Baton Rouge
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

At Least 85 People Sickened by THC at Wisconsin Pizza Place: CDC Report
At Least 85 People Sickened by THC at Wisconsin Pizza Place: CDC Report

Epoch Times

time5 hours ago

  • Epoch Times

At Least 85 People Sickened by THC at Wisconsin Pizza Place: CDC Report

Roughly nine months after an incident at a Wisconsin pizza parlor where marijuana-infused oil was used to prepare dough, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report detailing how dozens of customers experienced symptoms consistent with THC intoxication. The report, released on July 24, describes how at least 85 people, from ages 1–91, ate food from the restaurant in Stoughton, Wisconsin, between Oct. 22 and 24, 2024, and experienced THC sickness. The restaurant was in a building with a cooperative, or shared kitchen, that was also used by a 'state-licensed vendor who produced edible THC products.'

The FDA must crack down on dangerous knockoff weight-loss drugs
The FDA must crack down on dangerous knockoff weight-loss drugs

The Hill

time14 hours ago

  • The Hill

The FDA must crack down on dangerous knockoff weight-loss drugs

For the first time, there is real hope in the fight against obesity. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics shows that adult obesity rates in the U.S. may finally be flatlining after annual increases since at least 2011. Obesity has long been understood to be the second leading cause of preventable death in America. Neither negative cultural attitudes about weight nor government messaging campaigns about diets have helped curb it. Yet like most insurmountable problems, we are innovating our way out of it. Experts believe a significant part of recent progress is due to powerful new medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro, known as GLP-1 drugs. But just as these drugs are changing lives, a dangerous shadow market is growing alongside them. Compounded versions, which are copies of the original drugs made in smaller pharmacies, are flooding websites, med spas and clinics. These versions are often cheaper and easier to get than the real thing. They are also frequently untested, poorly regulated and, in many cases, illegal. The FDA has received more than 500 reports of serious side effects tied to compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide, the active ingredients in Ozempic and Mounjaro. Some patients have landed in the hospital after taking the wrong dose. That is not surprising when you consider that many of these vials come without proper labels or instructions. In 2023 alone, poison control centers received nearly 3,000 semaglutide-related calls, a huge jump from previous years. Many of those cases involved compounded or mislabeled versions of the medication. There are also serious concerns about what is actually in these products. The FDA has warned that some pharmacies are using different chemical forms of semaglutide, called salt forms, that are not approved for use and may not be safe. In April 2025, the agency seized counterfeit Ozempic from the U.S. supply chain after discovering that some vials contained the wrong ingredients or were contaminated with dangerous bacteria. These are not technical violations. They are real risks to people's health. During earlier shortages, compounding was allowed under special circumstances. But those shortages have ended, and the FDA has ordered most pharmacies to stop making these versions. Despite that, many continue to operate in legal gray zones or offer these drugs online. The harm does not stop with safety concerns. This trend also threatens future breakthroughs in obesity care. Companies like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly spent years and billions of dollars to develop these treatments. Now, they and others are working on new and even more effective drugs. When unapproved copies flood the market, it becomes harder to fund innovation. If investors cannot count on fair returns, the next generation of such medications may not make it out of the lab. Perhaps the biggest risk is to public trust. When someone has a bad experience with a fake or contaminated version, they may begin to doubt all weight loss innovations. That fear can ripple through the health system, making insurers and doctors more hesitant to support treatments that are helping with the genuine public health emergency of obesity. None of this means that compounding should disappear. It has a place when patients have specific medical needs that cannot be met by the approved versions, such as allergies or special dosing requirements. But what is happening now is not about rare exceptions. The FDA should continue cracking down on compounders that use unapproved ingredients or sell mislabeled products disguised as 'research chemicals.' At the same time, insurers and lawmakers need to make the real thing more affordable by removing middlemen such as pharmacy benefit managers. No one should have to choose between risking their health and going broke. We are finally making progress against a disease that affects nearly half the country and has stumped policymakers and advocates for decades. But progress is fragile. Unregulated versions of GLP-1s cannot be allowed to dominate the market. We risk undoing the progress reported by the CDC in the fight against obesity, and if we get this right, the trend could be reversed. That means longer lives for more people, lived in dignity and to the fullest.

No, California is not guaranteed to remain an abortion haven
No, California is not guaranteed to remain an abortion haven

San Francisco Chronicle​

time19 hours ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

No, California is not guaranteed to remain an abortion haven

The sudden closure of five Planned Parenthood clinics in Northern California last week reveals a sad, stark truth: California is not the national 'haven' for abortion rights that it has aspired to be since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. No state could be under Republican rule in Washington, or while federal law trumps state law, the Supreme Court majority opposes abortion rights and clinics are reliant on federal money to survive. There are few options to fix this problem, even in California, the world's fourth-largest economy. The state barely covered its budget deficit this year, and it has holes to fill as federal funds for public universities, education, transportation and other sectors were slashed in the recently passed budget. Plus, the state needs federal dollars to help rebuild Los Angeles after the devastating wildfires there earlier this year. Ten million Americans are expected to lose their health insurance because of nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over the next decade in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Meanwhile, the wealthiest Americans will receive a disproportionate share of the tax cuts funded by those reductions, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. 'It's an illustration of the limits on what any state can do (on abortion access) if the federal government is hostile,' said Mary Ziegler, a professor of law at UC Davis and leading scholar on abortion rights. 'It's more of a reminder that there isn't really a real sanctuary. California has limited power over a lot of this.' It is the latest example of how California is in the political crosshairs of what President Donald Trump's former top adviser Steve Bannon famously described as his 'muzzle velocity' philosophy of launching a lot of disruptive policies and spurious attacks simultaneously. California is withering under the incoming fire. The people hurt most by the closure of those clinics will be the poorest Californians, as 80% of the people who used services at those clinics were Medicaid recipients, according to Planned Parenthood Mar Monte, the umbrella organization for the shuttered clinics. Planned Parenthood doesn't just provide abortion services. The majority of people go to Planned Parenthood clinics for contraceptive services, sexually transmitted infection testing, pregnancy testing and gynecological services. One in 10 (11%) female Medicaid beneficiaries ages 15 to 49 who received family planning services went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in 2021, according to the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation. California has the highest percentage (29%) of Medicaid recipients in the country who go there for health care. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go. California was supposed to be a haven for abortion rights after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Shortly after the decision, Gov. Gavin Newsom joined the governors of Washington and Oregon to create what he called 'the West Coast offensive. A road map for other states to stand up for women.' A diverse coalition of abortion rights advocates formed the California Future of Abortion Council. It proposed more than 50 recommendations for policymakers to improve abortion access in the state. In the year after the decision, Newsom and the Democratic-controlled Legislature created more than a dozen new laws and invested more than $200 million to increase access across the state. In November 2022, 67% of California voters supported a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution. Newsom spent $100,000 from his campaign coffers to plant billboards in seven states with some of the nation's most restrictive laws: 'Need an abortion?' reads one billboard. 'California is here to help.' 'What you do in California sets the standard for everyone else,' Mini Timmaraju, national president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said at a 2022 fundraiser for Proposition 1 in San Francisco that Hillary Clinton attended. 'I want to take that package of legislation and this proposition and see it copied nationwide.' Ultimately, all those California laws and all that state funding weren't enough to keep the Mar Monte clinics open. They never could be as long as there isn't the national right to an abortion that Roe provided and as long as women's health clinics are reliant on federal funds to remain open. Planned Parenthood estimates that 200 clinics nationwide could close. To meet this reality, California needs a new 'West Coast offensive.' It needs to draw up a new 'road map for other states to stand up for women.' It would be best if clinics were funded privately, insulating them from partisan federal cuts. But that is harder now. California is the state with the most millionaires and billionaires. Now is the time for wealthy individuals and foundations to stand up and backfill these losses so clinics can continue to provide access to women's health care. But will those individuals step forward? Or will they be cowed like the wealthy law firms and Ivy League universities that have bowed to Trump's intimidation? Even if they do step up, is there enough private money in California to keep federally funded women's health clinics open until Democrats regain control of at least one lever of power in Washington and can curb his fascistic policies? That possibility looks bleak. For starters, it would probably require hundreds of millions of dollars, said Shannon Olivieri Hovis, former NARAL Pro-Choice California director who is now vice president of public affairs at Essential Access Health. 'I think the honest answer is, we don't know yet. We're talking about a huge hole.' Theresa Cheng, a professor of emergency medicine at UCSF and a member of the school's Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, said it will be difficult for the private sector to patch up all the new holes punctured in the social safety net by the Trump administration. 'That's going to be really difficult because the Trump administration has cut so broadly in so many social systems,' said Cheng, who is in touch with private donors through her work with several nonprofit organizations. 'Food insecurity. Homelessness. Immigration. There are a lot of needs out there now.' Relying on private donations isn't going to help clinics across California's chasm of wealth inequality, Ziegler said. 'If you're depending partly on individual donors, that's going to look very different in Beverly Hills or Marin County than it is in Gilroy or other areas where there are few people to give private donations,' Ziegler said. Until political change happens in Washington, Cheng urged Californians to 'stay stalwart in protecting reproductive health. So much of this will have to be settled out in the courts. That will at least buy us some more time.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store