• Heroin, fentanyl remain among nation's greatest drug threats, federal report says

    Heroin, fentanyl remain among nation's greatest drug threats, federal report says

    Nov 02, 2018 01:10 PM EDT

    Fatal heroin overdoses rose nationwide between 2015 and 2016, with a nearly 25 percent increase in the Northeast and more than 22 percent in the South. Most of the heroin sold in the U.S. is being trafficked from Mexico, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seize the ...

  • Trump signs opioid bill, father who lost son says we need a bigger ‘Band-aid’

    Trump signs opioid bill, father who lost son says we need a bigger ‘Band-aid’

    Oct 24, 2018 10:35 PM EDT

    ... does to a community, it's fentanyl. William Brangham: The law also contains money for research into non-addictive pain treatment, more distribution of anti-overdose medications, and more education about best practices for prescribing drugs. Across the country, local officials are pursuing their own various efforts to combat the ...

  • WATCH: Trump delivers remarks on opioid epidemic

    WATCH: Trump delivers remarks on opioid epidemic

    Oct 24, 2018 06:06 PM EDT

    ... borders," Zach Hunter, communications director for the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a statement to the network. The number of U.S. drug overdose deaths has begun to level off after years of relentless increases driven by the opioid epidemic, health secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday, cautioning it ...

  • In public, lawmakers scold drug distributors. Come campaign season, they accept their cash willingly

    In public, lawmakers scold drug distributors. Come campaign season, they accept their cash willingly

    Oct 13, 2018 06:31 PM EDT

    ... is expected to sign this month. “No member of Congress has done more than Chairman Walden to end the deadly cycle of diversion, addiction, and overdose,” said a committee spokesman, Zach Hunter. “Any suggestion otherwise ignores his historic efforts to fight the opioid epidemic.” A spokesman for Pallone also pointed ...

  • Column: Recent research sheds new light on why nicotine is so addictive

    Column: Recent research sheds new light on why nicotine is so addictive

    Sep 30, 2018 08:30 PM EDT

    Although our society currently finds itself focused on the tragic epidemic of opioid overdoses, there remains no better example of the deadly power of addiction than nicotine. The measure of a drug’s addictiveness is not how much pleasure (or reward) it causes but how reinforcing it is—that is ...

  • 5 important stories that were lost in last week's news dump

    5 important stories that were lost in last week's news dump

    Sep 18, 2018 08:56 PM EDT

    ... become a critical public health crisis in the U.S. -- and much publicized -- over the last few years. More than 40 percent of all opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription, according to the CDC. Some states are working to counteract liberal prescribing practices. California has had a prescription ...

  • Nearly 30 percent of patients prescribed opioids had no recorded pain diagnoses

    Nearly 30 percent of patients prescribed opioids had no recorded pain diagnoses

    Sep 10, 2018 09:41 PM EDT

    During a September 2016 Poynter Institute seminar on opioids in the U.S., Dr. Debra Houry, who directs the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said the United States would reverse skyrocketing rates of opioid misuse and overdose, “if we can stop the tide of people getting ...

  • The next time you go to the principal's office, it could be at your state house

    The next time you go to the principal's office, it could be at your state house

    Sep 04, 2018 08:30 PM EDT

    ... and the opioid crisis. Cabarrus County, where Concord is located, has one of the highest incidents of emergency room visits from heroin and prescription drug overdoses in North Carolina. Steele wants beginning teachers to be paid $55,000, which she says the state can afford to do if it reduces ...

  • There's no place like home for Dorothy's stolen ruby slippers, recovered in FBI sting

    There's no place like home for Dorothy's stolen ruby slippers, recovered in FBI sting

    Sep 04, 2018 07:56 PM EDT

    ... Rapids, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of Minneapolis, until she was 4, when her family moved to Los Angeles. She died of a barbiturate overdose in 1969. The Judy Garland Museum, which opened in 1975 in the house where she lived, says it has the world's largest collection ...

  • The Senate could soon pass an opioids package. But a new law is still a long way away

    The Senate could soon pass an opioids package. But a new law is still a long way away

    Sep 01, 2018 08:29 PM EDT

    The House bill includes an iteration of “Jessie’s Law,” named for a Michigan woman in recovery from an opioid addiction who overdosed after a post-surgical oxycodone prescription. It would eliminate a restriction that information on past substance use treatment can only be released with patient consent. The charge ...