• 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

    ... more than 100,000 in the 12 months ending last April. Health officials say the pandemic cut off drug users from treatment. They also blame fentanyl, a highly lethal opioid. Two men convicted of assassinating civil rights activist Malcolm X in New York in 1965 will have their names cleared ...

  • 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

    ... Vermont, West Virginia and Kentucky saw the nation's steepest climbs in overdose deaths. But these deaths were up across much of the country, with fentanyl linked to many of them. In September, the Department of Justice announced a crackdown on fentanyl across the U.S., noting that criminal drug ...

  • Biden picks former FDA chief Califf to again lead the agency

    Biden picks former FDA chief Califf to again lead the agency

    Nov 12, 2021 04:14 PM EDT

    ... missteps in the agency’s oversight of painkillers like OxyContin, which is widely blamed for sparking the ongoing opioid epidemic, now driven by heroin and fentanyl. “If addiction to opioids and misuse of opioids is an enemy then we at the FDA — like every other part of society — underestimated the ...

  • Oklahoma court overturns $465 million opioid ruling against Johnson & Johnson

    Oklahoma court overturns $465 million opioid ruling against Johnson & Johnson

    Nov 09, 2021 06:20 PM EDT

    State statistics show that from 2007 to 2017, more than 4,600 people in Oklahoma died from overdoses from opioids of all kinds, including prescription painkillers and illicit versions such as heroin and illegally made fentanyl. Nationally, opioids have been linked to more than 500,000 deaths since 2000. The ...

  • 150 people arrested in US-Europe darknet drug probe

    150 people arrested in US-Europe darknet drug probe

    Oct 26, 2021 03:39 PM EDT

    ... found darknet vendors were running fake laboratories in their homes to create fake pills — designed to look like prescription pain pills — that are laced with fentanyl, methamphetamine and other illegal drugs. The operation was specifically designed to target "licit drug distributors who use the darknet to traffic these illicit drugs ...

  • First steps made in Congress to honor pop superstar Prince

    First steps made in Congress to honor pop superstar Prince

    Oct 25, 2021 07:57 PM EDT

    ... in a statement. Prince, whose hits include "Little Red Corvette," "Let's Go Crazy" and "When Doves Cry," died April 21, 2016, of an accidental fentanyl overdose at age 57 at his Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The resolution for Prince is led by Klobuchar and U.S. Rep ...

  • Internal DHS documents reveal migrant abuse as border crossings hit record high

    Internal DHS documents reveal migrant abuse as border crossings hit record high

    Oct 22, 2021 10:45 PM EDT

    ... think part of the drug issue, though, is that it comes through our ports of entry. The drugs that kill people in this country, methamphetamine, fentanyl, et cetera, come through the ports of entry. They aren't being carried by a number of people trying to cross the border illegally ...

  • WATCH: Secretary Blinken, Mexico Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard give remarks

    WATCH: Secretary Blinken, Mexico Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard give remarks

    Oct 08, 2021 05:15 PM EDT

    The governments committed to targeting importers of chemical precursors for fentanyl and methamphetamine, their financial networks and secret labs. They also said they would work together to reduce the trafficking of guns, a high priority for violence-wracked Mexico, and to provide more opportunities to youth to make it harder ...

  • Autopsy: Actor Michael K. Williams died of drug intoxication

    Autopsy: Actor Michael K. Williams died of drug intoxication

    Sep 25, 2021 07:13 PM EDT

    NEW YORK — Actor Michael K. Williams died of acute drug intoxication in what New York City's medical examiner said Friday was an accidental death. Williams, known for playing Omar Little on “The Wire” and an Emmy Award nominee this year, had fentanyl, parafluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine in his system ...

  • Ordinary people are taking the law into their own hands to counter cartel threat

    Ordinary people are taking the law into their own hands to counter cartel threat

    Sep 16, 2021 10:35 PM EDT

    ... became a U.S. citizen. Monica Villamizar: Foley concedes, more drug mules get around him than the Recon can stop, but given the deadliness of fentanyl and other drugs, he's still dedicated to the pursuit.Tim Foley: The way I look at it, every little bit helps. That load ...