• Number of U.S. overdose deaths appears to be falling

    Number of U.S. overdose deaths appears to be falling

    Jul 17, 2019 07:50 PM EDT

    ... they could crush the tablets and snort or inject them to get high. Gradually, more addicts turned to cheaper street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. In 2015, heroin began causing more deaths than prescription painkillers or other drugs. In 2016, fentanyl and its close cousins became the biggest drug ...

  • 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 EDT

    ... Mandile: Over a 10-year period, I had taken 57 different medications, nine different opioids. I believe, in 2009, I was just getting on to fentanyl. I did six years on fentanyl, oxycodone for my chronic pain and then breakthrough pain. Miles O'Brien: It was a struggle, but he ...

  • 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 EDT

    ... deaths on Mexico. Tens of thousands of those deaths have nothing to do with Mexico or Central America. They are from legally made prescription opioids, fentanyl laboratories in China or other sources of international drug smuggling and illicit manufacturing in the U.S. More than 17,000 of the deaths ...

  • It's not just opioids. Deaths from cocaine and meth are surging.

    It's not just opioids. Deaths from cocaine and meth are surging.

    May 16, 2019 02:00 PM EDT

    But surveys of opioid users by researchers at Brown University and the University of California, San Francisco, indicate that most users consider fentanyl an undesirable contaminant and try to avoid it. Most cocaine users feel the same, addiction experts say. In Baltimore, addiction researcher and treatment practitioner Yngvild Olsen, medical ...

  • New Hampshire governor vetoes death penalty abolishment

    New Hampshire governor vetoes death penalty abolishment

    May 03, 2019 08:56 PM EDT

    ... police officers, but against its citizens is not going away. While we live in one of the safest states in the country, the opioid and fentanyl crisis continues to plague not only this city but the entire state," said Cheetham, past president of the New Hampshire Police Association. "Now is ...

  • Jury says drug firm founder guilty of bribing doctors to push opioid

    Jury says drug firm founder guilty of bribing doctors to push opioid

    May 02, 2019 09:17 PM EDT

    BOSTON (AP) — A pharmaceutical company founder accused of bribing doctors across the U.S. to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance. John Kapoor, the 76 ...

  • How federal case against drug distributor could change opioid fight

    How federal case against drug distributor could change opioid fight

    Apr 24, 2019 10:30 PM EDT

    ... called Rochester Drug Co-Operative, or RDC, which is a wholesaler, repeatedly ignored red flags and sent tens of millions of addictive opioid pills and fentanyl products to pharmacies that were then distributing those drugs illegally. Prosecutors say that RDC, and two of its former executives, knew full well what ...

  • Ex-CEO is first drug exec indicted in opioid crisis, U.S. Attorney says

    Ex-CEO is first drug exec indicted in opioid crisis, U.S. Attorney says

    Apr 23, 2019 07:29 PM EDT

    ... maximize company revenues and his own pay, which more than doubled between 2012 and 2016 as the company's sales of drugs like oxycodone and fentanyl skyrocketed. Doud, 75, surrendered to authorities in New York City and is awaiting arraignment on two counts of conspiracy. His lawyer said he would ...

  • Dozens of medical professionals charged in illegal prescription opioid crackdown

    Dozens of medical professionals charged in illegal prescription opioid crackdown

    Apr 17, 2019 06:51 PM EDT

    ... years. Among those charged was a Tennessee doctor who dubbed himself the "Rock Doc" and is accused of prescribing dangerous combinations of drugs such as fentanyl and oxycodone, sometimes in exchange for sex, authorities said Others include a Kentucky doctor who is accused of writing prescriptions to Facebook friends who ...

  • Andrew Yang on how the U.S. can adapt to its new economic realities

    Andrew Yang on how the U.S. can adapt to its new economic realities

    Apr 15, 2019 10:25 PM EDT

    Andrew Yang: Well, that's exactly why we need to decriminalize the use, because, when I was in Iowa, an 18-year-old high school student said to me that his classmates are literally addicted to fentanyl and heroin. And that struck me as incredible and tragic. And so I ...