• From panic buttons to bulletproof glass, U.S. election officials are preparing for threats

    From panic buttons to bulletproof glass, U.S. election officials are preparing for threats

    Sep 17, 2024 08:13 PM EST

    ... with badges. Election workers across the country also will have new procedures for handling mail, including kits of Narcan, the nasal spray used for accidental overdoses. In Durham County, a central feature of the new office will be a mail processing room with a separate exhaust system to contain potentially ...

  • How social media became a storefront for deadly fake pills laced with fentanyl

    How social media became a storefront for deadly fake pills laced with fentanyl

    Sep 12, 2024 07:04 PM EST

    ... accountable for their part in facilitating illicit drug sales,” Shaheen said. But for parents like Arnold, Brown and others who already lost their children to overdoses, it is too late. “Social media companies have the ability to make their platforms drug-free zones,” DelPonte said. “Instead, they keep evading the ...

  • Oregon law rolling back drug decriminalization takes effect, making possession a crime again

    Oregon law rolling back drug decriminalization takes effect, making possession a crime again

    Sep 01, 2024 07:32 PM EST

    ... addiction services, but the money was slow to get out the door at a time when the fentanyl crisis was causing a spike in deadly overdoses and health officials — grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic — were struggling to stand up the new treatment system, state auditors found. The new law ...

  • How the U.S. insurance system makes finding mental health care difficult

    How the U.S. insurance system makes finding mental health care difficult

    Aug 30, 2024 10:45 PM EST

    ... then the insurer will only improve coverage for a less intensive treatment first. Such limitation means patients can risk bodily harm or even death through overdose or suicide. Stephanie Sy: What do insurance companies tell you by way of explaining these reimbursement and care issues? Annie Waldman: Yes, we reached ...

  • One of two doctors charged over Matthew Perry's death appears in court after making plea deal

    One of two doctors charged over Matthew Perry's death appears in court after making plea deal

    Aug 30, 2024 02:03 PM EST

    ... was incredibly universally loved by all. It’s a shame at what happened." Chavez would be the third person to plead guilty in the aftermath of the “Friends” star’s fatal overdose last year. WATCH: 3 ways to lend or find support after a loved one dies of an overdose

  • News Wrap: Zelenskyy says Ukraine captured Russian town of Sudzha

    News Wrap: Zelenskyy says Ukraine captured Russian town of Sudzha

    Aug 15, 2024 10:45 PM EST

    Federal law enforcement officials have charged five people in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry. They include two doctors and Perry's own assistant. The "Friends" star suffered an accidental ketamine overdose last year. At a news conference today in Los Angeles, officials said they'd uncovered a ...

  • 5 people, including 2 doctors, charged in 'Friends' star Matthew Perry's death

    5 people, including 2 doctors, charged in 'Friends' star Matthew Perry's death

    Aug 15, 2024 08:07 PM EST

    ... megahit sitcom. Drug-related celebrity deaths have in other cases led authorities to prosecute the people who supplied them. After rapper Mac Millerdied from an overdose of cocaine, alcohol and counterfeit oxycodone that contained fentanyl, two of the men who provided him the fentanyl were convicted of distributing the drug ...

  • COVID-19 falls from No. 4 to No. 10 cause of death in U.S.

    COVID-19 falls from No. 4 to No. 10 cause of death in U.S.

    Aug 08, 2024 06:31 PM EST

    ... dropped to fourth in 2022. — The leading causes of death were heart disease, cancer and a category of injuries that includes gun deaths and drug overdoses. — There were nearly 3.1 million deaths last year in the U.S., down from 3.3 million in 2022. For many years before ...

  • News Wrap: 1 dead in Colorado's Stone Canyon wildfire

    News Wrap: 1 dead in Colorado's Stone Canyon wildfire

    Jul 31, 2024 10:40 PM EST

    ... on small packages coming into the U.S. That would close a loophole often used to import the substances used to make illicit fentanyl. Fentanyl overdoses are a leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45. In South Carolina, death by firing squad is now a legal method ...

  • Who is 'El Mayo' Zambada, the Sinaloa drug cartel leader now in U.S. custody?

    Who is 'El Mayo' Zambada, the Sinaloa drug cartel leader now in U.S. custody?

    Jul 27, 2024 03:56 PM EST

    In its 2024 National Drug Threat Assessment, the Drug Enforcement Agency calls fentanyl the most urgent drug threat in the U.S. and says it and other synthetic opioids were responsible for about 70% of the 107,941 fatal overdoses in the country in 2022. “The Justice Department will not ...