• Overdose fatalities fell last year, but the full picture is more complicated

    Overdose fatalities fell last year, but the full picture is more complicated

    May 15, 2024 02:00 PM EDT

    ... latest data. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, chief science officer for the Washington State Department of Health, said more widespread use of fentanyl likely drove up overdose deaths. More than 3,000 people died from overdose in the state last year. Fentanyl is cheap, easy to manufacture, far more potent than ...

  • California is joining with a New Jersey company to buy a generic opioid overdose reversal drug

    California is joining with a New Jersey company to buy a generic opioid overdose reversal drug

    Apr 29, 2024 08:07 PM EDT

    ... the CalRx label once its approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a process the Newsom administration said could take several months. Opioid overdose deaths, which are caused by heroin, fentanyl and oxycodone, have increased dramatically in California and across the country. Annual opioid overdose deaths in California ...

  • Paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with fatal ketamine overdose avoids prison

    Paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with fatal ketamine overdose avoids prison

    Apr 27, 2024 03:38 PM EDT

    A former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a powerful sedative avoided prison Friday and was sentenced to 14 months in jail with work release and probation in the killing of the Black man that helped fuel the 2020 racial injustice protests.

  • New study sheds light on ripple effects of overdose deaths

    New study sheds light on ripple effects of overdose deaths

    Feb 21, 2024 09:00 PM EDT

    ... The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health this week, serves as an urgent call to action for addressing the ripple effects of overdose deaths within communities. Overdose bereavement is neglected in both scientific literature and “in our conversations about the broader overdose crisis,” Alison Athey, the study ...

  • EBay will pay $59 million settlement over pill presses sold online as U.S. undergoes overdose epidemic

    EBay will pay $59 million settlement over pill presses sold online as U.S. undergoes overdose epidemic

    Feb 01, 2024 01:55 AM EDT

    ... make sure the machines are traceable and not used illegally, federal prosecutors said.“Counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl are a significant contributor to the deadly overdose epidemic,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. More than 100,000 deaths were linked to drug overdoses in 2022, according to the U.S ...

  • Paramedics convicted in death of Elijah McClain for giving fatal ketamine overdose

    Paramedics convicted in death of Elijah McClain for giving fatal ketamine overdose

    Dec 23, 2023 04:33 PM EDT

    ... prosecutors — another officer put him in a neck hold that rendered him temporarily unconscious. Officers also pinned down McClain before Cooper injected him with an overdose of ketamine. Cichuniec was the senior officer and said it was his decision to use ketamine. Prosecutors said the paramedics did not conduct basic ...

  • How dozens of U.S. adolescents are dying of drug overdoses each month, shown in 3 charts

    How dozens of U.S. adolescents are dying of drug overdoses each month, shown in 3 charts

    Dec 02, 2023 05:45 PM EDT

    ... in case something goes wrong. Even if your child never tries an illicit drug, they may be able to intervene and save a friend who overdoses. Everyone should know the signs of an opioid overdose – they include shallow or no breathing, problems staying conscious, and cold, clammy skin – and be ...

  • Wider access to Narcan helps rural communities fight overdose deaths

    Wider access to Narcan helps rural communities fight overdose deaths

    Apr 05, 2023 10:40 PM EDT

    ... s support group. Randy Smith: We will start with check-ins. William Brangham: Nationwide, women in rural areas are more likely to die of an overdose than women in cities. Smith knows the challenge is keeping people alive long enough that they can find their way to a new path ...

  • How harm reduction advocates are working to prevent fentanyl overdose deaths

    How harm reduction advocates are working to prevent fentanyl overdose deaths

    Feb 17, 2023 06:13 PM EDT

    ... address the opioid crisis and potential overdoses. For New Mexico, a key part of the harm reduction approach is distributing fentanyl test strips and the overdose reversal drug naloxone. Fentanyl is potent and can result in accidental overdoses. “If people use fentanyl test strips, then they're aware that fentanyl ...

  • U.S. life expectancy falls to lowest level since mid-1990s due to COVID and drug overdoses

    U.S. life expectancy falls to lowest level since mid-1990s due to COVID and drug overdoses

    Dec 22, 2022 11:55 PM EDT

    ... remedies to arrest this decline are fundamental structural changes to American society. It's not just vaccines to avoid COVID deaths or naloxone to avoid overdose deaths. You're talking about something much more systemic. Dr. Steven Woolf: If this had only happened during the pandemic, we could blame it ...