• Government hospitals put Native Americans at opioid risk, audit says

    Government hospitals put Native Americans at opioid risk, audit says

    Jul 22, 2019 03:04 PM EST

    ... opioids and benzodiazepines — commonly used to treat anxiety and insomnia —at the same time, which "puts patients at a greater risk of a potentially fatal overdose." The Indian Health Service said it implemented a tool to track the dosages, and all of its facilities reported data in the first quarter ...

  • How racial inequity is playing out in the opioid crisis

    How racial inequity is playing out in the opioid crisis

    Jul 18, 2019 09:24 PM EST

    Despite the lower number of fatal overdoses compared to whites, opioids and drug abuse in general is still a rampant problem in many communities of color. “When you look at 2017, the opioid overdose death rate for white non-Hispanics was 19.4 percent. We've seen a doubling of ...

  • Does marijuana hurt or help your brain? Scientists rush to study the drug's impact

    Does marijuana hurt or help your brain? Scientists rush to study the drug's impact

    Jul 10, 2019 10:40 PM EST

    ... struggle, but he finally weaned himself off of opioids, and now relies mostly on medical marijuana, which, unlike those prescription painkillers, has never caused an overdose death.But government studies show 9 percent of those who use marijuana will become dependent on the drug, much better than alcohol, at about ...

  • Florida approves statewide needle exchange

    Florida approves statewide needle exchange

    Jun 27, 2019 02:45 PM EST

    MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill that authorizes Florida counties to establish programs that allow intravenous drug users to exchange used needles for clean ones. The measure is modeled after a Miami-based program which also provides HIV screening, access to social services, the opioid-overdose antidote Narcan ...

  • AP fact check: Trump and the credit and blame game

    AP fact check: Trump and the credit and blame game

    Jun 08, 2019 03:52 PM EST

    ... through their country from Central, from Honduras and Guatemala, El Salvador.” — Fox News interview Thursday. THE FACTS: Trump is inflating the death toll from drug overdoses — more than 70,200 in 2017 — and wrongly blaming all the known deaths on Mexico. Tens of thousands of those deaths have nothing to ...

  • Prosecutors say Australian cardinal's convictions should stand

    Prosecutors say Australian cardinal's convictions should stand

    Jun 06, 2019 03:03 PM EST

    One of the people Pell is convicted of molesting died of a heroin overdose in 2014 aged 31, apparently without ever alleging he had been abused. State law prohibits identifying either victim. The other, now in his 30s, became the key prosecution witness. He first came to police in 2015 ...

  • Charged with murdering patients by painkillers, Ohio doctor pleads not guilty

    Charged with murdering patients by painkillers, Ohio doctor pleads not guilty

    Jun 05, 2019 07:36 PM EST

    ... wrongful death lawsuits have been filed against the doctor and the hospital system. Families alleged their loved ones were negligently or intentionally killed by painkiller overdoses ordered by Husel. Some also have questioned whether they were misled about the graveness of the patients' conditions. Mount Carmel has publicly apologized and ...

  • Australian Cardinal Pell appeals child sex convictions

    Australian Cardinal Pell appeals child sex convictions

    Jun 05, 2019 12:35 PM EST

    ... by the defense repeatedly during Pell's trial and was "quite misleading in lots of ways." One of Pell's victims died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 31, apparently without making any accusation of abuse. State law prevents victims of sexual assault from being publicly ...

  • The true story behind the ‘welfare queen’ stereotype

    The true story behind the ‘welfare queen’ stereotype

    Jun 01, 2019 09:06 PM EST

    ... fraud in 1974. When she's out on bail she is suspected of homicide. A woman that she was living with died of a drug overdose and there is very strong reason to believe that Taylor had been responsible for it and yet she isn't ultimately charged. When the ...

  • News Wrap: Iran says ‘no prospect’ of nuclear negotiations with U.S.

    News Wrap: Iran says ‘no prospect’ of nuclear negotiations with U.S.

    May 28, 2019 10:50 PM EST

    ... the epidemic by deceptively marketing the painkillers. The company has denied the claim. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated opioid-related overdoses killed more than 47,000 Americans in 2017 alone. Officials in Iran today said that they see no prospect of nuclear negotiations with the ...