Opioids

WASHINGTON -- Drug control experts urged Congress Tuesday to take quick action to prevent drugs created by clandestine chemists that mimic the effects of opioids from entering legal and illegal marketplaces. They suggested that Congress turn a temporary order on... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. Senate committee sought answers again Tuesday on how to stop a nationwide crisis of opioid addictions while acknowledging their previous efforts have largely failed. A record 61,300 people died from drug overdoses in 2017 in the... Read More

HAMBURG, Germany — In 2016, 10 times as many Americans as Germans died as a result of drug overdoses, mostly opiates. Three times as many Americans as Germans experienced opioid addiction. Even as the rates of addiction in the U.S.... Read More

CHICAGO — An opioid overdose can be a lonely death. People who use drugs often do so in private, and should they get a dose stronger than they can tolerate, no one will be there to save them with the... Read More

The largest civil trial in U.S. history is scheduled to begin in a matter of days, putting those who made, marketed, distributed and dispensed prescription painkillers under the legal spotlight. But those on the front lines of the opioid epidemic... Read More

FREDERICK, Md. — Donna Johnson, a working mother of four who lives in a quiet upscale neighborhood in suburban Maryland, is determined to thwart an insidious addiction treatment scam that’s spreading across the country. It ensnared her son, then 21,... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Drug Enforcement Agency allowed drug manufacturers to increase production of opioids, despite the fact that overdose deaths were becoming a national health crisis, a government watchdog said in a report released Tuesday. The Justice Department's inspector general... Read More

For the families of the roughly 400,000 Americans who have died of opioid drug overdoses since 1999, a legal drama scheduled to unfold in an Ohio courtroom next month may feel like a true shot at justice. After downplaying the... Read More

BUCKEYE, Ariz. — Melissa and Daryl McKinsey first heard about “Mexican Oxy” last year when their 19-year-old son Parker called in tears. “I need to go to rehab,” he said. Several months earlier, a friend had given Parker a baby-blue... Read More

WASHINGTON - Representative Stephanie Murphy announced the University of Central Florida will receive $494,412 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to combat the opioid epidemic in central Florida. The funds will be used by the university... Read More

An Oklahoma judge on Monday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million for its role in fueling the state's opioid abuse crisis. Cleveland County District Judge Thad Balkman's ruling concluded the first state opioid case to make it to... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — Louis Morano knew what he needed, and he knew where to get it. He made his way to a mobile medical clinic parked on a corner of Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, in the geographical heart of the city’s overdose... Read More

DENVER — A car accident 17 years ago shattered Ashley Weber’s spine and left her confined to a wheelchair. After the accident, she said, she was prescribed strong opioids, developed an addiction to them and spent her days in a... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — In a stark illustration of the depths of Philadelphia’s opioid crisis, a new survey of city residents found that nearly a third — 29% — know someone who has died from opioid use. The survey, conducted by the... Read More

Representative Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., visited a Walgreens pharmacy in Waldwick, New Jersey with Bergen County Sheriff Anthony Cureton to discuss how local communities are addressing the opioid crisis and substance abuse in general. Deaths from drug overdoses in New Jersey... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — For years, Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood has been the epicenter of a huge open-air drug market where illicit drugs were bought and used in plain sight. But more than a decade ago, in the earliest days of what would... Read More

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Billions of pain pills distributed, more than a million years of life lost, thousands of deaths by overdose. Reports and data released last week offered a breathtaking view of the numbers behind Ohio’s epidemic of drug addiction,... Read More

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Soon after he took over as medical director of the Urgent Care & Surgery Center in eastern Tennessee in 2012, Dr. Marc Valley realized he was supervising illegal drug dealers in lab coats. Platoons of patients socialized... Read More

The Blue Dog Coalition has endorsed H.R. 2483, also known as the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which aims to pressure the Chinese government to honor its commitment to make all forms of fentanyl illegal and provide the United States with more... Read More

SAN FRANCISCO — Kim had been wine tasting with a friend in Sonoma, Calif. They got into an argument in the car that night and Kim thought someone was following them. She was utterly convinced. And she had to get... Read More

New Hampshire will receive an additional $11.9 million to address the state's opioid crisis thanks to the willingness of the Granite State's congressional delegation to reach across the aisle and seek bipartisan support for the infusion of federal funding. New... Read More