In rural America, chronic pain and opioid addiction are common, but treatment is often harder to come by. In the village of Necedah, Wis., population 916, one doctor is changing that.
Public health officials are adopting a law-enforcement tool, the mass spectrometer, to instantly identify potentially deadly levels of opioids in local drug supplies.
The opioid epidemic is intergenerational, with tens of thousands of babies born every year dependent on opioids. Advocates worry lawsuits against the drug industry might overlook these children.
A few hundred hospitals have banded together to sue drugmakers in state courts, but far more are staying on the sidelines to avoid 'unflattering attention' about their role in the opioid crisis.
Researchers say chronic pain patients can feel suicidal or risk overdose when taken off medication too quickly. The warnings seek to course-correct after doctors felt pressured to taper drugs rapidly.
Fentanyl, Inc. author Ben Westhoff says the opioid, while useful in hospitals, is killing more Americans as a street drug than any other in U.S. history. Here's how it moves from China to your corner.
In a landmark ruling, Judge Thad Balkman ruled in favor of Oklahoma in its lawsuit to hold the drugmaker accountable for the costs of opioid addiction in the state.
Oklahoma has argued that the drugmaker's marketing of painkillers contributed to thousands of overdose deaths and other harms in the state and is asking for a multibillion-dollar award.
Some addiction treatment clinics offer IV infusions of a mix of supplements — including something known as NAD. The treatment isn't proven to work and is not FDA-approved for addiction.
The amount of meth seized in the U.S. more than doubled from 2017 to 2018. That translates to lots more meth, along with cocaine and other stimulants, on the streets — and likely more deaths.
Provisional overdose data for 2018 show a note of hope in an overall bleak picture. But in some states, the numbers actually got worse. What explains the disparities?
As addiction has soared, drugmakers, distributors and pharmacies profited off opioids. Newly released data details who made the pills, where they were sold, and which communities were hit hardest.
The Justice Department has mounted a legal challenge to block the effort, claiming such a site violates federal drug laws and would enable opioid users.
Many users now mix opioids with stimulants such as meth and cocaine. Researchers say efforts to get doctors to reduce opioid prescriptions may have driven some users to buy meth on the street instead.
The pharmaceutical industry is facing hundreds of lawsuits around the country from state and local officials, who want the industry to help pay to tackle the opioid epidemic.
A quirk in the law gives an older opioid addiction treatment "orphan drug" status — and a period of exclusive market access. That may prevent some new therapies from reaching patients for years.
Many jails and prisons refuse to offer medication for opioid addiction, even to inmates who had been in treatment before incarceration. A recent ruling in a federal court says that's not acceptable.
After dozens of health care workers were charged with illegally prescribing opioids in Appalachia, local health agencies are trying to make sure chronic pain patients don't fall through the cracks.
A Philadelphia group hopes to open a site for people to use drugs under medical supervision. Faced with legal challenges, the group is making a moral and religious case for its proposed facility.
Two years after East Liverpool, Ohio, gained notoriety from a viral photo of an overdosed couple, the community is coming to terms with its addiction problem — and taking tentative steps forward.
When fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, infiltrated the drug supply in the U.S. it had an immediate, dramatic effect on the overdose rate.
While opioids get all the attention, rural communities struggle with substances like meth and alcohol too. One clinic is building up capacity to treat all of them, using both medicine and counseling.
In some countries, doctors prescribe medical-grade heroin to patients with long-term addiction. Could it ever happen the U.S.? A new report from RAND Corporation outlines the pros and cons.
A rural county in Washington declared the opioid epidemic a life-threatening emergency. They use a multi-agency coordination group straight out of FEMA's playbook to respond to the crisis.
![Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, picked up in a 2016 New York City drug bust. "Basically, [fentanyl] is so cheap to produce and it's so powerful, that drug dealers began realizing it was a way to increase their profits," <em>Fentanyl, Inc. </em>](https://knpr.org/sites/default/files/public/styles/thumbnail/public/images/npr-story/757101225_1449456291.jpg?itok=N19p1YW8 "Drew Angerer, Getty Images")
