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How the pandemic is complicating America’s addiction crisis
According to preliminary data, drug overdoses killed nearly 72,000 Americans in 2019, a record high. Now, it appears that 2020 is on track to be even worse, as the U.S. has witnessed a startling rise in overdoses during the pandemic.
For 1st time in 4 years, U.S. life expectancy rises, but only a little
The rise is mostly due to lower death rates for cancer and drug overdoses.
Number of U.S. overdose deaths appears to be falling
Overdose deaths had been climbing each year since 1990, topping 70,000 in 2017.
As fentanyl death toll spikes, states step up their interventions
With the advent of fentanyl and other highly potent synthetic drugs, many states are amplifying those policies and adding new programs to protect drug users from deadly contaminants in heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs.
In opioid-stricken West Virginia, this school is taking on the role of parent. Lisa Stark of Education Week visits Cottageville Elementary, where students often lack food, clothes and transportation because of drug-addicted parents. In addition to increasing communication with local…
The abuse of opioids has become a major public health concern; more than 28,000 people died by overdose in 2014. According to reporting by STAT News, drug companies downplayed the addictive effects of opioid drugs in the late 1990s, assuring…
Nearly 50,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2014, a new record driven by the deaths of heroin addicts and people misusing prescription painkillers, new federal statistics showed.
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