• WATCH: Sackler family members who own Purdue testify before Congress

    WATCH: Sackler family members who own Purdue testify before Congress

    Dec 17, 2020 02:59 PM EST

    ... and your family are addicted to money,” he told Sackler.Rep. Carol Miller, a Republican whose West Virginia district has been devastated by addictions and overdoses implored David Sackler, who said he’d vacationed in Appalachia, to visit communities the drugs have harmed. Rep. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, compared ...

  • How court-ordered drug testing poses impossible choices

    How court-ordered drug testing poses impossible choices

    Dec 08, 2020 05:13 PM EST

    ... because of one missed test or positive result. Case workers intervene immediately if someone tests positive for heroin or fentanyl due to the risk of overdose, he said. “What we discovered is that, if clients are not showing up for drug tests, it’s usually either a scheduling difficulty or ...

  • Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, pleads guilty in criminal case

    Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, pleads guilty in criminal case

    Nov 24, 2020 08:08 PM EST

    ... to federal crimes provides only minor comfort for advocates who want to see harsher penalties for the OxyContin maker and its owners. The ongoing drug overdose crisis, which appears to be worsening during the coronavirus pandemic, has contributed to the deaths of more than 470,000 Americans over the past ...

  • Oregon leads the way in decriminalizing hard drugs

    Oregon leads the way in decriminalizing hard drugs

    Nov 04, 2020 08:56 PM EST

    ... difficult to find housing and jobs — was not working. One in 11 Oregonians is addicted to drugs, and nearly two people die every day from overdoses in the state, the Oregon Nurses Association, the Oregon Chapter American College of Physicians and the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians had said in ...

  • Conn. attorney general calls Purdue Pharma settlement ‘a mirage’

    Conn. attorney general calls Purdue Pharma settlement ‘a mirage’

    Oct 22, 2020 10:28 PM EST

    A historic settlement was announced Wednesday among the Department of Justice, Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family over the drug giant’s role in the national opioid crisis. The CDC estimates roughly 450,000 people died from opioid overdose between 1999 and 2018. But some critics feel the ...

  • Judge dismisses 1 charge against former cop in Floyd’s death

    Judge dismisses 1 charge against former cop in Floyd’s death

    Oct 22, 2020 04:09 PM EST

    ... notes, Hennepin County Medical Examiner Andrew Baker told prosecutors that absent other apparent causes of death, it “could be acceptable” to rule the death an overdose, based on the level of fentanyl in Floyd’s system. A separate autopsy commissioned for Floyd’s family concluded he died of asphyxiation due ...

  • Worsening opioid crisis overshadowed in presidential race

    Worsening opioid crisis overshadowed in presidential race

    Oct 21, 2020 06:03 PM EST

    Ohio, a battleground state in the presidential contest, is on track to have one of its deadliest years of opioid drug overdoses. More residents died of overdoses in May than in any month in at least 14 years, according to preliminary mortality statistics from the state health department. As Trump ...

  • Justice Department says OxyContin maker will plead guilty to 3 criminal charges

    Justice Department says OxyContin maker will plead guilty to 3 criminal charges

    Oct 21, 2020 03:35 PM EST

    ... the grip of substance use disorder, justice for the jobs lost and the lives ruined, and justice for the lives of loved ones lost to overdoses,” 38 Democratic members of Congress wrote. “If the only practical consequence of your Department’s investigation is that a handful of billionaires are made ...

  • Unemployment rises in Europe as pandemic grinds on

    Unemployment rises in Europe as pandemic grinds on

    Oct 01, 2020 01:46 PM EST

    ... overdue bills when she got her unemployment benefit, and sent resumes everywhere. "I haven't managed to find another job," she said. "It's an overdose of stress because we haven't a penny in our pockets," says Silva. "We are left without any money after paying rent, water, energy ...

  • A photographer's Brief But Spectacular take on documenting the pandemic

    A photographer's Brief But Spectacular take on documenting the pandemic

    Sep 16, 2020 10:20 PM EST

    ... six days, we ended up visiting nine municipal hospitals and clinics across five boroughs. Working on this type of story, it requires, I think, an overdose of empathy. If the moment is emotional, I allow myself to feel emotional. In feeling that, I really hope that it impacts the picture ...