• News Wrap: At least 15 detained migrants staging hunger strikes, ICE confirms

    News Wrap: At least 15 detained migrants staging hunger strikes, ICE confirms

    Jan 31, 2019 11:50 PM EST

    ... drug. They found it Saturday, hidden in a load of Mexican produce entering the U.S. The synthetic opioid has caused a surge in fatal overdoses. In the U.S. Senate, Republicans and Democrats joined today in challenging President Trump's plans to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan. Majority ...

  • Behind Purdue Pharma’s marketing of OxyContin

    Behind Purdue Pharma’s marketing of OxyContin

    Jan 20, 2019 10:06 PM EST

    ... sales reports he would be coaching people on how they should go out and push Oxycontin to doctors. When you started having people dying of overdoses he is very involved in e-mails saying look the way we're going to spin this is that it's about drug addicts ...

  • Paralyzed outdoorsman designs bike to cycle woods again

    Paralyzed outdoorsman designs bike to cycle woods again

    Jan 20, 2019 09:25 PM EST

    ... doesn't feel strange anymore. I'd say, like, it's pretty easy to fall back into this. ‘cause it's so amazing and it's-- and I think it's pretty natural, like, for-- from being a human, wanting and-- and needing this. You can't overdose on this.

  • Drug maker pushed OxyContin despite danger signs, prosecutor says

    Drug maker pushed OxyContin despite danger signs, prosecutor says

    Jan 17, 2019 02:19 PM EST

    ... it accounts for a small portion of opioids sold in the U.S.; and that illicit drugs including heroin and street fentanyl are causing most overdose deaths. "In a rush to vilify a single manufacturer whose medicines represent less than two percent of opioid pain prescriptions rather than doing the ...

  • Growing opioid crisis adds to Puerto Rico's problems

    Growing opioid crisis adds to Puerto Rico's problems

    Jan 07, 2019 08:43 PM EST

    ... cookers. Minutes later, a red line appeared — a positive test for the presence of fentanyl. Program director Rafael Torruella said he noticed an increase in overdoses after Maria hit and his organization began testing heroin cookers for fentanyl. Now nearly all of them test positive. Laviena was among the addicts ...

  • Will drug companies be held accountable for America's opioid epidemic?

    Will drug companies be held accountable for America's opioid epidemic?

    Jan 01, 2019 11:35 PM EST

    I mean, it's a stunning statistic, but in the five years at the Justice Department decided to settle this case, more than 80,000 Americans died of overdoses involving prescription painkillers, including OxyContin. William Brangham: You also argued that another settlement in 2001 against Purdue by the state of ...

  • Art is a lifeline for this Appalachian community hit hard by opioids

    Art is a lifeline for this Appalachian community hit hard by opioids

    Dec 28, 2018 09:50 PM EST

    ... make knives or build a backpack guitar, the arts tend to deliver a soothing, beneficial effect. Evans said one student in her ceramics class had overdosed on opioids so many times that he developed motor skill issues. He couldn’t control the pressure he applied to an item -- if he ...

  • These surprising health stories shaped 2018

    These surprising health stories shaped 2018

    Dec 26, 2018 10:28 PM EST

    ... as it reduces medical debt and improves access to needed care.--Joan Alker, executive director for Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University Reducing overdose deaths Numerous studies show that overdose rates for those who were recently released from incarceration (specifically within the first two weeks of release) are ...

  • Opinion: ‘Passive’ fentanyl exposure: more myth than reality

    Opinion: ‘Passive’ fentanyl exposure: more myth than reality

    Dec 23, 2018 10:50 PM EST

    ... and emergency departments, where fentanyl is routinely administered as a pain reliever. Doctors, nurses, and others in emergency departments who care for victims of fentanyl overdose are undoubtedly exposed to these drugs on patients’ clothing, skin, and paraphernalia. Workers in needle exchange programs and supervised consumption facilities are routinely exposed ...

  • Purdue’s secret OxyContin papers should be released, appeals court rules

    Purdue’s secret OxyContin papers should be released, appeals court rules

    Dec 15, 2018 08:07 PM EST

    ... filed a motion more than two years ago to unseal the records — which were stored in a courthouse in a rural county hit hard by overdose deaths. STAT won a lower-court order in May 2016 to release the documents, but after Purdue appealed, the judge stayed that order. “We ...