heroin

This app tracks drug overdoses in real time

By Christine Vestal, Stateline

In an opioid overdose epidemic that killed more than 53,000 Americans last year and shows no signs of relenting, nearly every community in the nation is fortifying its public health, emergency medical and law enforcement response. But with limited resources,…

What works to educate kids about the dangers of opioid use?

By Lora Strum, Vic Pasquantonio

A comprehensive approach to drug education that builds students' decision-making, goal-setting and self-management skills may work best.

Twitter chat: Americans are pessimistic about the opioid crisis. What does that mean for a solution?

By Lora Strum

The PBS NewsHour will host a Twitter chat on the opioid crisis at 1 p.m. ET Oct. 5.

Poll: Most Americans think Trump hasn’t done enough to fix opioid crisis

By Laura Santhanam

Only 2 percent of adults nationwide said the country’s opioid problem improved over the last year.

Saving the babies of the opioid epidemic

By Laura Santhanam

On bad days, five new babies are born in withdrawal from opioids at Cabell County-Huntington Hospital in southern West Virginia. In the neonatal therapeutic unit, there are zero unoccupied beds, but staff can’t turn the infants away. On one week…

Heroin overdoses killed 3 times as many teens in 2015 than in 1999

By Synclaire Cruel

Drug overdose deaths among teenagers have ticked up after years of decline, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How a heroin addict tried to kick her habit in an opioid ‘treatment desert’

By Brian Rinker, Kaiser Health News

When Heather Menzel arrived at the Bakersfield, California, bus station one day in February 2014, she hoped that the worst of her withdrawal was over and that a new life without heroin awaited.

Column: How Big Pharma is hindering the fight against the opioid epidemic

By Robin Feldman, The Conversation

While opioids have become easier to obtain through illicit markets, a drug that could save countless lives has become increasingly out of reach.

Prescription opioids tripled between 1999 and 2015, CDC says

By Laura Santhanam

The amount of opioids prescribed in 2015 was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks, according to a new CDC report.