• 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

    ... 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 EST

    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 EST

    ... 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 EST

    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 EST

    ... 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 EST

    ... 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 EST

    ... 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 EST

    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 ...

  • Family behind OxyContin calls Massachusetts opioid suit false, misleading

    Family behind OxyContin calls Massachusetts opioid suit false, misleading

    Apr 02, 2019 09:25 PM EST

    ... the past few years seeking to hold the drug industry responsible for a deadly national opioid crisis. Opioids, including illicit drugs such as heroin and fentanyl, were involved in a record 48,000 deaths in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more ...

  • What Purdue Pharma's settlement with Oklahoma means for the opioid crisis

    What Purdue Pharma's settlement with Oklahoma means for the opioid crisis

    Mar 26, 2019 11:50 PM EST

    ... 000 people fatally overdosed on drugs between 1999 and 2017, according to federal data. In 2017 alone, more than 70,200 Americans died from drug overdose, and more than two-thirds of those deaths were linked to opioids, with a growing proportion of those deaths tied to heroin and fentanyl.