A new study finds the number of drivers fatally injured in automobile accidents who tested positive for one or more substances is rising, according to U.S. News & World Report.
The study, by the Governors Highway Safety Association, found that 44 percent of fatally injured drivers with known test results tested positive for drugs in 2016, up from 28 percent a decade earlier.
More than half of the drivers had marijuana, opioids or a combination of the two in their system, the study found. Thirty-eight percent tested positive for marijuana, 16 percent tested positive for opioids and 4 percent tested positive for both. Among the drivers tested for alcohol, 37.9 percent tested positive in 2016, down from 41 percent in 2006.
MAY 31, 2018 BY PARTNERSHIP NEWS SERVICE STAFF
The FDA recently voted in favor of pushing a new formulation of oxycodone hydrochloride for approval. The new OxyContin formula is more difficult to crush or dissolve which will hopefully make it harder to be used as a drug of abuse . The FDA recommended that Purdue Pharma's application for a new, resin-coated formulation should replace the original version, which has been on the market since 1996. Randall Flick, MD, an anesthesiologist at the Mayo Clinic who voted to recommend approval of the drug said, "Clearly the old formulation is worse than the new, although I think the difference is relatively small," Flick concluded, "Hardcore abusers are likely to devise new ways to break down the harder tablet or figure out which solvents will dissolve it fastest, within 'day or weeks' of the product's release on the market."