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News Articles: opioid

Fentanyl took root in Montana and in communities across the Mountain West region during the pandemic, and overall drug overdose deaths are disproportionately affecting Native Americans.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Tribal leaders sound the alarm after fentanyl overdoses spike at Blackfeet Nation

After 17 overdoses — including four deaths — this spring, Indigenous leaders in Montana and surrounding states look for ways to stop the fentanyl crisis and provide more treatment and care.

June 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Aaron Bolton
Fentanyl took root in Montana and in communities across the Mountain West region during the pandemic, and overall drug overdose deaths are disproportionately affecting Native Americans.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Tribal leaders sound the alarm after fentanyl overdoses spike at Blackfeet Nation

After 17 overdoses — including four deaths — this spring, Indigenous leaders in Montana and surrounding states look for ways to stop the fentanyl crisis and provide more treatment and care.

June 01, 2022
|
By:
  • Aaron Bolton
Lawmakers host Donna Lowry and Judy Fitzgerald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

Tagged as: 

  • Politics

Lawmakers: On Day 36, drug abuse and opioid deaths reach 'pandemic' levels in Georgia

Lawmakers host Donna Lowry speaks to Judy Fitzgerald, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities.

March 28, 2022
|
By:
  • Donna Lowry
GPB News NPR

Tagged as: 

  • Health

4 U.S. companies will pay $26 billion to settle claims they fueled the opioid crisis

The companies, including Johnson & Johnson and McKesson, will admit no wrongdoing. Billions of dollars in payouts will fund drug treatment and harm reduction programs.

February 25, 2022
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
GPB News NPR

Tagged as: 

  • Business

Sackler family is willing to pay more in Purdue opioids settlement, mediator says

Under the latest proposal, the Sacklers would contribute between $5.5 billion and $6 billion, an increase from the $4.3 billion they had agreed to earlier.

February 18, 2022
|
By:
  • The Associated Press
Shell neurons (green) project to the breathing center and core neurons (red) project to the pain/emotion center. Brain scientists have found the two are linked, shedding new light on opioid overdoses

Tagged as: 

  • Science

A brain circuit linking pain and breathing may offer a path to prevent opioid deaths

Opioids can kill because they reduce breathing along with pain. Now brain scientists have made a discovery that could lead to potent pain drugs that don't affect breathing.

December 22, 2021
|
By:
  • Jon Hamilton
Patients with opioid addiction who show up in a hospital's ER face many barriers to recovery, and so do the doctors trying to help them. Easing those barriers on both sides helps patients get into good follow-up programs that lead to lasting change.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

Many ERs Fail People Who Struggle With Addiction. These New Approaches Might Help

Starting treatment for addiction in the emergency room greatly improves the chances recovery will last, experts say. Cutting red tape, hiring advocates and Uber vouchers can all make a difference.

August 21, 2021
|
By:
  • Aneri Pattani
A pedestrian walks past a mural in Huntington, W.Va., on March 18. Huntington was once ground zero for the U.S. opioid epidemic.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Was It 'Reasonable' To Ship 81 Million Opioid Pills To This Small West Virginia City?

As a landmark federal opioid trial nears completion, West Virginia communities are demanding $2.5 billion in compensation. Drug firms say they acted responsibly in shipping millions of pills.

July 30, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
While continuing to deny any wrongdoing, Johnson & Johnson will contribute $5 billion over a nine-year span to the $26 billion opioid settlement announced Wednesday.

Tagged as: 

  • National

State Attorneys General Reach A $26 Billion National Opioid Settlement

Payouts will be spread over the next 18 years, with much of the funding going to help communities struggling with high rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

July 21, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
Jameson Rybak, son of Jim and Suzanne Rybak of Florence, S.C., struggled with opioid addiction and died of an overdose on June 9, 2020 — three months after he left a hospital ER because he feared he couldn't afford treatment.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

A Tragic Death Shows How ERs Fail Patients Who Struggle With Addiction

ER doctors wanted to hospitalize the young man to help ease his withdrawal from opioid dependence. But he declined because he couldn't afford it. His mom says no one told him he had financial options.

July 14, 2021
|
By:
  • Aneri Pattani
Fentanyl pills

Tagged as: 

  • Health

'Perfect Storm:' An Opioid Menace Like Never Before

Georgia saw a big jump in opioid-related overdose deaths last year, fueled by a doubling of the number of fatalities involving fentanyl, according to data from the state Department of Public Health.

July 12, 2021
|
By:
  • Andy Miller
Purdue Pharma faced an avalanche of lawsuits for alleged harm caused by its prescription opioid medicine OxyContin. A controversial bankruptcy deal expected to be finalized next month would block lawsuits against members of the Sackler family who own the firm.

Tagged as: 

  • Health

15 States Drop Opposition To Controversial Purdue Pharma OxyContin Bankruptcy

Massachusetts and New York are among the states agreeing to end the fight to halt a controversial Purdue Pharma bankruptcy plan. The deal shelters members of the Sackler family from opioid lawsuits.

July 08, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
The federal opioid trial involving drug distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson is taking place in the Robert C. Byrd Courthouse in Charleston, W.Va. The trial is expected to establish whether the drug distributors, accused of failing to curb the flow of prescription painkillers, face liability nationwide.

Tagged as: 

  • National

Opioid Trial In West Virginia Comes Amid A National Reckoning For Big Pharma

Drug distributors have faced embarrassing revelations about their internal practices. One email shared by corporate executives described rural Americans addicted to opioids as "pillbillies."

May 26, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
David (left) and Kathe Sackler, members of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, the maker of Oxycontin, testified via video to a House Oversight Committee hearing on Dec. 17, 2020. Sackler family members have acknowledged that the drug had a role in the opioid crisis, but they have stopped short of apologizing or admitting wrongdoing.

Tagged as: 

  • National

24 States Mount Legal Fight To Block Sackler Bid For Opioid Immunity

Under a bankruptcy procedure prohibited by courts in part of the country, the Sacklers could be sheltered from opioid lawsuits even without declaring bankruptcy. Some states are crying foul.

May 03, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
Steve Collis, president and chief executive officer of AmerisourceBergen Corp., testifies during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing on May 8, 2018.

Tagged as: 

  • National

As U.S. Corporations Face Reckoning Over Prescription Opioids, CEOs Keep Cashing In

Companies that sold or distributed opioid medications face huge legal, financial and public relations peril. Critics say shareholders, not CEOs, will pay the price.

March 29, 2021
|
By:
  • Brian Mann
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