Opioid Epidemic

Sixteen individuals have been indicted for their roles in trafficking prescription opioids and cocaine in New York City, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday. According to two indictments — unsealed in Kings County Supreme Court — the group sold tens of thousands of prescription oxycodone pills, worth about $500,000, and more than 500 grams of…

Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

Many hip hop songs normalize opioids and other drugs, a fact that is left out of public health approaches to the opioid epidemic, says Kaiser Health News reporter Chaseedaw Giles. At the same time, many people are unaware of side effects like withdrawal – which could be solved with public health messaging that looks to the culture and incorporates it.

New York City and 21 of New York’s counties on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against consulting firm McKinsey & Company, accusing the company of contributing to the opioid crisis by helping create strategies to increase prescription drug sales

A New York doctor who illegally distributed painkillers and solicited sexual favors from some younger patients in exchange for opioid prescriptions has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison, federal prosecutors announced

Doctors say they’re facing increasing threats of violence for refusing to prescribe opioids or trying to wean patients off the addictive painkillers.

The CDC reports that overdose fatalities in the U.S. have spiked during the coronavirus pandemic.

Doctors explain the stress of isolation, loss of work and loss of health coverage are partially to blame — but they’re finding that something else is causing the spike in overdoses.

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the painkiller Oxycontin, pleaded guilty to charges for its role in the opioid crisis. 

NYU Langone Medical Center will remove the family name Sackler from its biomedical institute after the Sackler’s company, Purdue Pharma, agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for marketing the addictive prescription painkiller OxyContin that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic. “In view of yesterday’s U.S. Department of Justice announcement of the settlement of federal criminal charges with Purdue...

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for their marketing of OxyContin.

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges for their marketing of OxyContin.

New Jersey residents will be able to pick up the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free over the next three days.

Up to seven people were hospitalized, including five law enforcement officers and a tow truck driver, after a chemical exposure while attempting to aid the driver of a car who stopped on the Golden Gate Bridge Sunday, California authorities said.

The coronavirus pandemic is overshadowing a separate crisis that was top of our collective mind just a couple months ago: the opioid epidemic. “It’s almost like everything has been stopped in time,” said John Pellicane, Director of the Office of Mental Health and Addiction Awareness Task Force in Camden County, New Jersey. For weeks, a viral invasion has dominated...

A federal judge entered a final order Tuesday on his ruling last year that a nonprofit’s proposal to open the nation’s first supervised injection site for opioid users in Philadelphia does not violate federal law.

Prosecutors say they believe the boy ingested fentanyl and methamphetamine from a cotton ball contaminated during intravenous drug use at the residence

One measure would mandate state prisoners with opioid disorders receive medication known for undoing the effects of an opioid overdose upon their release

Police said they found multiple medicine bottles around the family’s Bensalem apartment including one in the baby’s swing.

New Jersey will provide $7.8 million to county jails to support opioid addiction treatment for inmates. The funding announced Thursday will also create community partnerships needed to ensure that treatment continues once an inmate is released from jail, officials said, noting that people leaving jails are particularly vulnerable to opioid overdose. “The opioid epidemic has devastated too many families and…