A confluence of circumstances created the national opioid crisis in the late 1990s: the medical community’s acceptance of the idea that opioids were rarely addictive, the pharmaceutical companies’ aggressive marketing of prescription opioids, and the Joint Commission’s adoption of pain as the “fifth vital sign” of patients’ physical well-being, joining body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, […]
McHenry County State’s Attorney Patrick Kenneally believes that we have no one but ourselves to blame for the opioid crisis. “We did create the disease from the ground up,” he said. In 2016, Bloomsbury Press published Sam Quinones’ “Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic.” In the book, Quinones pinpoints a January 1980 letter […]
Larry Lough is editor of The Independent and reports local news.
Janet Dovidio has been a freelance correspondent for The Independent for eight years.
Susan W. Murray wrote for The Independent, covering various beats, from 2005 to 2008.
Tricia Carzoli is a freelance writer and photographer that on community news.
