Opioids

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revised its guidelines for using opioids to treat pain, removing dose and duration targets due to unintended consequences stemming from its earlier recommendations. The new guidance, announced Thursday, updated advice... Read More

Drugstore retailers CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens on Wednesday announced a $10 billion settlement of thousands of state and local lawsuits accusing the companies of mishandling their sales of opioid painkillers. Walmart has tentatively agreed to pay another $3 billion to... Read More

ATLANTA — The increased use of telehealth services during the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have resulted in individuals with addiction problems staying in treatment longer and reduced their likelihood of overdosing, according to a new study. The research was a... Read More

CLEVELAND — Pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart must pay $650.5 million to help with the opioid recovery efforts of two Ohio counties, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. He agreed with officials in Lake and Trumbull counties that the pharmacies’... Read More

WASHINGTON — Only days after the Justice Department announced successful prosecutions of drug runners and seizures of huge stashes of illegal opioids, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said what was on everyone’s mind at a Senate hearing Tuesday. “I think we... Read More

CABELL COUNTY, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on Monday ruled in favor of drug distribution companies accused in a lawsuit of creating a public nuisance by distributing opioids that kill thousands of Americans each year. The judge... Read More

WASHINGTON — In a unanimous ruling the Supreme Court said on Monday that prosecutors must prove doctors knowingly misprescribed drugs to secure convictions against them for the unlawful distribution of controlled medicines, like opioids. The decision came down in a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., in February introduced a bill which would revise outdated regulations on methadone treatment and allow any pharmacy to dispense methadone for treating opioid use disorders. The bill has since been referred... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Their advocacy helped send Purdue Pharma into bankruptcy and is forcing the family that has controlled the company for generations to relinquish ownership and provide billions of dollars for communities to combat opioid addiction. But what... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Overdose deaths, most of them attributable to opioid abuse, surged in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported Wednesday. In the latest edition of its annual Drug Overdose... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. needs a nimble, multipronged strategy and Cabinet-level leadership to counter its festering overdose epidemic, a bipartisan congressional commission advises. With vastly powerful synthetic drugs like fentanyl driving record overdose deaths, the scourge of opioids awaits... Read More

A federal bankruptcy judge is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to accept a settlement between OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, the states and thousands of local governments over an opioid crisis that has killed a half-million Americans over the last... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress lashed into the Sackler family Thursday for its pharmaceutical company’s role in promoting a painkiller blamed for killing about 230,000 Americans. Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee said the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma... Read More

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Opioids Task Force announced the state has received $80 million in federal funding to respond to the ongoing opioids crisis.  The funds... Read More

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

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

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 — 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

As the opioid crisis continues to devastate families and communities across the country, a new bipartisan bill, the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, promises to put more teeth in efforts to curb the activities of Chinese and other traffickers of Fentanyl and... 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