• CDC says more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting 'staggering' record

    CDC says more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021, setting 'staggering' record

    May 11, 2022 03:51 PM EDT

    ... increase began in the 1990s with overdoses involving opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and — most recently — illicit fentanyl. Last year, overdoses involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids surpassed 71,000, up 23 percent from the year before. There also was a 23 ...

  • Biden administration defends border policies as the battle over Title 42 heats up

    Biden administration defends border policies as the battle over Title 42 heats up

    Apr 27, 2022 10:40 PM EDT

    ... to rescue some migrants, and also for those migrants. There's a lot of concern about traffickers, smugglers, that we have seen an increase in fentanyl seizures, about 50 percent in a year. There's real concern about drug trafficking and whether that there is enough control over an expected ...

  • White House will push ‘harm reduction’ in latest fight against drug overdoses

    White House will push ‘harm reduction’ in latest fight against drug overdoses

    Apr 21, 2022 10:25 PM EDT

    ... free. It has to be easier to get treatment, particularly with a medicine called buprenorphine, than it is to find a bag of heroin or fentanyl. William Brangham: But do we have enough beds, enough practitioners, enough buprenorphine to stem this crisis? I mean, the administration says they want to ...

  • Doctor who prescribed enough painkillers to 'kill an elephant' found not guilty in 14 patient deaths

    Doctor who prescribed enough painkillers to 'kill an elephant' found not guilty in 14 patient deaths

    Apr 20, 2022 06:00 PM EDT

    ... over the deaths of at least 17 patients, with more lawsuits pending. One patient, 82-year-old Melissa Penix, was given 2,000 micrograms of fentanyl and died a few minutes later. Dr. John Schweig of Tampa Bay General Hospital testified for the prosecution that Penix “definitely was not terminal ...

  • COVID helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history

    COVID helped make 2021 the deadliest year in U.S. history

    Apr 12, 2022 05:19 PM EDT

    ... adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population, even though surveys suggest drug use among teens is down. Experts attributed the spike to fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling ...

  • After years of pain, opioid crisis victims confront Sackler family in court

    After years of pain, opioid crisis victims confront Sackler family in court

    Mar 10, 2022 05:40 PM EDT

    ... prescription drugs and then, as prescriptions became harder to obtain and some drugs became harder to manipulate for a quick high, from heroin. More recently, fentanyl and similar drugs have become the biggest killer.Purdue has twice pleaded guilty to criminal charges, but no members of the Sackler family have ...

  • LISTEN: Supreme Court justices seem to favor doctors in case over pain pill prescription convictions

    LISTEN: Supreme Court justices seem to favor doctors in case over pain pill prescription convictions

    Mar 01, 2022 02:57 PM EDT

    ... 2015, prosecutors said. Kahn was convicted of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances resulting in death, including oxycodone, an opioid pain reliever, and fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Jessica Burch, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, was a patient of Kahn’s who died from an overdose in 2015. He ...

  • Johnson & Johnson, distributors finalize $26B opioid settlement

    Johnson & Johnson, distributors finalize $26B opioid settlement

    Feb 25, 2022 02:27 PM EDT

    Dan Keashen, a spokesman for Camden County government, said officials are thinking about using settlement money for a public education campaign to warn about the dangers of fentanyl. They also want to send more drug counselors into the streets, put additional social workers in municipal courts and pay for anti ...

  • Police officers on trial for violating George Floyd's rights should have intervened, says lieutenant

    Police officers on trial for violating George Floyd's rights should have intervened, says lieutenant

    Feb 10, 2022 09:46 PM EDT

    ... emergency physician and toxicologist and professor at the University of Colorado in suburban Denver, testified that Floyd did not die from the low levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, but from a lack of oxygen to his brain. Kueng, who is Black, Lane, who is white, and Thao ...

  • Toxicologist testifies that drugs and heart disease did not kill George Floyd

    Toxicologist testifies that drugs and heart disease did not kill George Floyd

    Feb 10, 2022 12:30 AM EDT

    ... been saved if officers had moved him into a position to breathe more easily. Bebarta said Floyd did not die from the low levels of fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system, nor from his heart disease and high blood pressure. He said that on video from inside a convenience store ...