• NYC greenlights safe sites for drug use in effort to curb overdoses

    NYC greenlights safe sites for drug use in effort to curb overdoses

    Nov 30, 2021 04:58 PM EDT

    NEW YORK (AP) — The first officially authorized safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics have been cleared to open in New York City in hopes of curbing overdoses, the mayor and health commissioner said Tuesday. The “overdose prevention centers” — commonly known as supervised injection sites — have been ...

  • How the pandemic is contributing to alarming rise in opioid overdose deaths

    How the pandemic is contributing to alarming rise in opioid overdose deaths

    Nov 18, 2021 11:40 PM EDT

    ... of the world. But now all it takes is one slip. With such a dangerous illicit opioid supply, one slip can easily lead to an overdose death. William Brangham: President Biden campaigned on ramping up federal support for drug prevention and drug treatment. Is it your sense that he has ...

  • News Wrap: Overdose deaths hit record high during the pandemic

    News Wrap: Overdose deaths hit record high during the pandemic

    Nov 17, 2021 11:55 PM EDT

    In our news wrap Wednesday, new numbers show COVID-19 is pushing drug overdose deaths to record highs. Two men convicted of assassinating Malcolm X in New York in 1965 will have their names cleared. An Arizona man at the center of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol assault now ...

  • U.S. surpassed 100,000 overdose deaths in first year of COVID-19

    U.S. surpassed 100,000 overdose deaths in first year of COVID-19

    Nov 17, 2021 04:48 PM EDT

    More than 100,000 people in the United States fatally overdosed on drugs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to staggering new preliminary data released Tuesday. Between April 2020 and April 2021, overdose deaths in the U.S. increased by 28.5 percent over the previous ...

  • U.S. overdose deaths hit record 93,000 in pandemic last year

    U.S. overdose deaths hit record 93,000 in pandemic last year

    Jul 14, 2021 02:31 PM EDT

    ... treat intense pain from ailments like cancer but has increasingly been sold illicitly and mixed with other drugs. "What's really driving the surge in overdoses is this increasingly poisoned drug supply," said Shannon Monnat, an associate professor of sociology at Syracuse University who researches geographic patterns in overdoses. "Nearly ...

  • Deaths from drug overdoses surge in some Black communities amid COVID-19

    Deaths from drug overdoses surge in some Black communities amid COVID-19

    Jun 30, 2021 10:15 PM EDT

    ... think we need to move more towards teaching people how to safely use. Narcan is just one aspect for harm reduction and definitely reverse an overdose. I think that's great. We do know that overdoses occur about 80 to 85 percent of the time in someone's home. But ...

  • What's behind the historic spike in drug overdose deaths under COVID-19

    What's behind the historic spike in drug overdose deaths under COVID-19

    Dec 28, 2020 09:55 PM EDT

    ... and others to focus on ways to: Distribute and use more naloxone, an antidote to reverse the effects of overdose. Expand education programs that target overdose prevention. Broaden awareness of access to available treatment for substance use disorders. Identify and help individuals at highest risk for overdose early on. Monitor ...

  • Money promised to combat U.S. overdose crisis sits unused

    Money promised to combat U.S. overdose crisis sits unused

    Nov 25, 2020 06:21 PM EDT

    ... be able to do so much more than if you just gave it to a state agency,” said Cichowicz, whose twin brother, Scott Zebrowski, fatally overdosed in 2017 on a counterfeit OxyContin pill containing fentanyl. The former gym manager was 38. Cichowicz, who lives in Richmond, Virginia, said her brother ...

  • Drug overdoses: The hidden epidemic in the pandemic

    Drug overdoses: The hidden epidemic in the pandemic

    Jul 05, 2020 09:25 PM EDT

    ... And, you know, obviously a lot of these people in ambulances and the police, they're pretty and they've seen a lot of these overdoses. They have a pretty good sense of when something is a true overdose. And so they fill that in in their reporting. So what ...

  • Prisoners in Italy riot amid virus containment, 6 die in overdose

    Prisoners in Italy riot amid virus containment, 6 die in overdose

    Mar 09, 2020 08:33 PM EDT

    There are riots in at least two-dozen lock-ups and officials confirmed six prisoners died after they broke into an infirmary and overdosed on methadone.