• 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 EDT

    ... 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 EDT

    ... 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 EDT

    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 EDT

    ... 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 EDT

    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 EDT

    ... 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 EDT

    ... 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 EDT

    ... 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 ...

  • A family's fight to stay together -- despite a 10-year prison sentence

    A family's fight to stay together -- despite a 10-year prison sentence

    Sep 14, 2020 10:30 PM EDT

    ... grandson was left alone oftentimes to take care of his younger siblings, which was probably -- probably the hardest time of my life. Their mother had overdosed and was being taken to the hospital. Kimberly Howell: We were planning on getting all four the children. And when the courts decided to ...

  • WATCH: George Floyd's family speaks out after hearing for officers charged in his death

    WATCH: George Floyd's family speaks out after hearing for officers charged in his death

    Sep 11, 2020 02:32 PM EDT

    ... that defense filings highlighting Floyd's drug use amount to killing him a second time. "They are trying to claim some asinine theory about an overdose. I want to be clear about this. The only overdose that killed George Floyd was an overdose of excessive force and racism by the ...