Image by PureRadiancePhotoOPINION: The “fourth wave” of the opioid epidemic is crashing through the state, causing a dramatic increase in overdose deaths. To address this, addiction treatment professionals, law enforcement, behavioral health advocates, and families impacted by overdose have come together to call on Governor Gavin Newsom to sign Senate Bill 641 by Senator Richard Roth (D-Riverside) into law.
A photo illustration of the coronavirus pandemic and California. (Photo: bekulnis, via Shutterstock)The state of California and its top medical regulator remain mired in a go-slow posture on the regulation of “snake oil” stem cell clinics that are currently riding the COVID-19 crisis to peddle dubious treatments to desperate patients. The marketing surge by the clinics has drawn increased attention nationally, including in prestigious scientific journals such as Cell Stem Cell whose usual fare deals with such things as “Stem Cell Hierarchy in Colorectal Cancer.”