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Join Together Northern Nevada is holding a semiannual “Prescription Drug Round Up” day on October 21 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The goal of the round up is to collect unused, unwanted and expired prescription - or non-prescription - medications.

Locations:

• Raleys - 18144 Wedge Parkway, Reno
• CVS – 55 Damonte Ranch Parkway, Reno
• SaveMart – 105—N. McCarran Blvd., Reno
• Smith’s – 175 Lemmon Drive, Reno
• Scolari’s – 4788 Caughlin Parkway, Reno
• UNR Student Health Center, 1664 N. Virginia Street, Reno
• CVS - 680 N. McCarran Blvd, Sparks
• CVS – 5151 Sparks Blvd., Sparks

You may also drop off your pet medications and liquid form of medications.

Nevada officials are exploring alternative avenues for insuring more than 26,300 children in the state covered under the Children’s Health Insurance Program if Congress doesn’t reauthorize the program, which is set to expire Saturday...Congress is expected to reauthorize the CHIP program through a bipartisan bill, though that could be weeks away. And with the turmoil in Congress lately, state officials are taking no chances...The Department of Health Care Financing and Policy is working with state partners to identify alternative sources of funding for the program if it is not reauthorized, deputy administrator Cody Phinney said ...“We would have to find other funding sources and we’d have to look at our options for limiting the services that are available, but our first role is to maintain those services,” Phinney said...the federal government pays nearly the entire annual $43 million cost of the program in Nevada...The state has ‘reserve funding’ to operate the health-care program for the next few months. However if Congress does not quickly reauthorize CHIP, states like Nevada will need to either send notices of termination to program beneficiaries or develop alternative funding...

Drug pricing regulation hasn't gained much ground on a national level, but in Nevada, there's a fierce fight over pricing and transparency for diabetes medications. In the latest twist, the industry lost its bid to stall a new law that's designed to shine light on pricing practices...Industry groups PhRMA and BIO filed for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against officials in Nevada, contending that the state's Senate Bill 539 will "impose irreparable injury" against drugmakers...The bill mandates that the state gather a list of essential diabetes medicines and as well as detailed pricing information from companies that sell those drugs. The reports would include costs, profits, rebates and other details, in addition to pricing numbers...And then that information would go public: Under the law, the state would publish the reported info online.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America the Biotechnology Innovation Organization today initiated litigation in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada challenging provisions of SB 539, a Nevada law that would violate patent rights and negate trade secret protection for designated diabetes medicines in a way that would harm patients and chill future biomedical innovation...PhRMA and BIO seek a declaration from the Court that the challenged provisions of SB 539 are preempted by federal law and violate several provisions of the United States Constitution...also seek an injunction prohibiting the implementation or enforcement of these challenged provisions...The Complaint alleges that provisions of SB 539 violate the Constitution in at least four ways:

1. by interfering with federal patent law;
2. by interfering with federal trade secret law;
3. by violating the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution which prohibits government from taking property without just compensation; and
4. by violating the dormant Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits Nevada from impeding commerce in other states.

Stephen Paddock, who killed at least 58 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas...with high-powered rifles, was prescribed an anti-anxiety drug in June that can lead to aggressive behavior...Records from the Nevada Prescription Monitoring Program...show Paddock was prescribed 50 10-milligram diazepam tablets by Henderson physician Dr. Steven Winkler on June 21...Diazepam...studies have shown can trigger aggressive behavior. Chronic use or abuse of sedatives...can also trigger psychotic experiences...“If somebody has an underlying aggression problem and you sedate them with that drug, they can become aggressive,” said Dr. Mel Pohl, chief medical officer of the Las Vegas Recovery Center. “It can disinhibit an underlying emotional state. … It is much like what happens when you give alcohol to some people … they become aggressive instead of going to sleep.”

The Nevada Legislature has filed a motion to intervene as a defendant in a federal lawsuit that challenges a state law that requires disclosure of how insulin is priced...Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization say the Nevada law passed this year is unconstitutional. The groups maintain the legislation improperly interferes with federal patent law because the disclosure requirements it imposes penalize pricing decisions that are consistent with the patent rights granted by Congress...Gov. Brian Sandoval and Department of Health and Human Services Director Richard Whitley are named as defendants in the lawsuit. The Legislature on Tuesday filed its motion to defend the law.

The state of Nevada is preparing a public information campaign to address the increasing use of marijuana by pregnant women and highlight the potential harm the drug can do to a fetus...The public service TV and radio ads, which will begin airing in December, come as research shows that more pregnant women are using pot. A federal study last year found that marijuana use by pregnant women in the U.S. increased from 2.4 percent in 2002 to 3.9 percent in 2014, a 62 percent jump...Studies in states that have legalized recreational pot suggest the rate of use is far higher...In Colorado, where marijuana was legalized in 2014, one Pueblo hospital reported that the number of babies born with the chemical effects of marijuana in their systems doubled in two years. Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director and chief medical officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, called the report anecdotal but noted that the state’s most recent official survey found that 6 percent of pregnant women were using marijuana.

The bullet wounds that University Medical Center trauma surgeon Dr. Jay Coates saw late Sunday night were to the head, chest, abdomen, legs and arms...“It was like we were in a war zone,” he said early Monday...“From our patients’ wounds, you could tell a high-powered weapon had been used.”...Despite that preparation, UMC medical personnel and others at Sunrise, Valley and St. Rose Dominican hospitals said the carnage...Stephen Paddock unleashed at the...country music festival adjacent to Mandalay Bay was beyond anything you could imagine. Patients arrived so fast that the surgeons and support personnel couldn’t begin to keep up...“It was controlled chaos, a combat medical hospital — blood everyplace,” said Dr. Dale Carrison, head of emergency...staff at UMC...UMC, Southern Nevada’s only Level I trauma center, received 104 patients. Other patients — the final number is still uncertain — were later transferred to the hospital from other medical centers that couldn’t handle the severity of the gunshot wounds...Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, a Level II trauma center and the closest trauma center to the Strip, treated 214 patients, with at least 30 needing surgery. Fifteen patients died there. The Sunrise system’s other hospitals, Southern Hills and Mountain View, treated nine and eight patients, respectively...Gretchen Papez, a spokeswoman for the Valley Hospital System, said the network of hospitals received a total of 228 patients, eight of whom died. She provided this breakdown by individual hospital: Desert Springs, 105 patients treated; Spring Valley, 53; Henderson, 32; Valley, 29; Summerlin, six; and Centennial Hills, three.

Business will continue as usual for Nevada’s Silver State Health Insurance Exchange during the upcoming open enrollment period despite uncertainty over its future in Congress...Insurance exchange officials, joined by Democratic state Sen. Yvanna Cancela, addressed advisers who will help with the enrollment process ...emphasizing the need for aggressive outreach to Nevada’s estimated 43,000 eligible but non-enrolled residents...They also said planning will continue ahead of the Nov. 1 beginning of the enrollment period despite the potential that Congress could eliminate the exchange by repealing the Affordable Care Act...

Roseman University College of Medicine...announced a $10 million pledge gift from the Engelstad Family Foundation, which will help advance the opening of the school...“This is really a very important moment for the history of Roseman,” said Dr. Mark Penn, founding dean for the medical school. “We don’t have state support, so we rely on other money, resources to support what we try to do. We’re thrilled they want to partner with us this way.”...The donation is the largest in the Henderson university’s history, and kicks off a $66 million fundraising campaign. The medical school will be in Summerlin, where the campus nursing school is...The money is needed to hire critical faculty and staff, an important step as the school continues through a new accreditation process…