Opioid Epidemic

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…

Overdose tracking systems are giving near real-time glimpses into the ravages of the opioid-fueled drug crisis. The Hudson Valley Interlink Analytic System in New York is among a number of surveillance systems being adopted around the country by police, government agencies and community groups.

Every time she got out of jail, Jamie Cline started hustling again for heroin, driven by an addiction she didn’t understand. “You want to get clean so bad. You know something’s killing you and you can’t stop,” said the 33-year-old who used heroin for 10 years.

Nearly 40 years ago, a respected doctor wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine with some very good news: Out of nearly 40,000 patients given powerful pain drugs in a Boston hospital, only four addictions were documented. Doctors had been wary of opioids, fearing patients would get hooked. Reassured by the letter, which called this “rare” in...

Parents whose children fatally overdosed on opioids are demanding Harvard University remove the name of a family whose company makes the powerful painkiller OxyContin from a building that housed one of its art museums. About two dozen parents protested Friday outside the building the housed the Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

Over three days last week, a giant brain made of 9000 red carnations in Herald Square was transformed by 200 handmade black poppies representing opioids. Organizers Shatterproof then asked people to come and ‘be part of the solution’ by removing the black poppies, in a dramatic statement about reducing the stigma around opioid addiction.

Here’s what to know for Tuesday, Jan. 29.