opioid epidemic

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

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

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 number of fatal drug overdoses grew 7% last year in Maine, underscoring that the opioid epidemic continues to be a major health care challenge in the state, officials said Friday. The 380 deaths remained below the peak of 417 overdose deaths in 2017, according to the analysis by Dr. Marcella Sorg of the University of Maine’s Margaret Chase Smith…

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.

Opioid deaths in Massachusetts are no longer on the rise, according to the Department of Health, but officials say progress has slowed. Deaths from opioid overdoses dropped 3% in the Bay State from 2016 to 2017, and dropped 2% from 2017 to 2018, but improvement stopped from 2018 to 2019. Health officials saw virtually no change in that timeframe. These…

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

A Vermont city plans to expand and adapt a program that sought to address the opioid crisis and other social problems.

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.

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.

Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills has signed an executive order aimed at helping the state deal with an opioid epidemic. Her order Wednesday calls for making the overdose antidote Naloxone more widely available; logging and mapping overdoses to track “hotspots” in real time; implementing medication-assisted therapy programs; and creating targeted prevention programs.

A Norwalk doctor has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison on drug distribution and health care fraud charges after what authorities have called the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action by the federal Medicare Fraud Strike Force in the country.

The opioid epidemic is having an immense impact on the nation and although parents may refrain from speaking to their children about it, experts encourage the discussion. Chief clinical officer of Gosnold, Inc, Allie Anderson, shares what her organization does and how they help children understand through counseling.

In Maine, there’s confusion at the state’s Capitol over new rules to make Narcan more accessible.

More than 150 people across New Hampshire are facing charges after a drug sweep carried out by local, state and federal law enforcement.

Amid the outcry over the Florida school shootings, the Trump administration says it is “actively exploring” ways to help states expand inpatient mental health treatment using Medicaid funds. President Donald Trump again brought up the issue of mental hospitals in a meeting with governors this week, invoking a time when states maintained facilities for mentally ill and developmentally disabled people.

Seth Meyers takes a break from breaking news to check in on President Donald Trump’s promise to do everything in his power to fight the opioid epidemic.

A yearlong study offers rigorous new evidence against using prescription opioids for chronic pain. In patients with stubborn back aches or hip or knee arthritis, opioids worked no better than over-the-counter drugs or other nonopioids at reducing problems with walking or sleeping. And they provided slightly less pain relief, Opioids tested included generic Vicodin, oxycodone or fentanyl patches although few...

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu says it will take cooperation, innovation, and compassion to reverse the terrible effects of New Hampshire’s opioid crisis.