The company billed it as a "first-of-its-kind" item that lets customers turn extra opioid painkillers into trash, but the CDC says just flush the medicine down the toilet.
Researchers knew the HIV outbreak in the small town of Austin, Ind., was related to IV drug use. Mapping how the virus mutated over time revealed its path — and how it might have been stopped.
Vox.com drug policy reporter German Lopez details the scope of the opioid epidemic, and Bobby Allyn, a reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, discusses the idea of safe injection sites.
There’s a new law now in effect in Nevada aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse by preventing the over-prescribing of opioids.
Among the measures in Assembly Bill 474 are benchmarks on prescribers. For instance, painkillers can’t be prescribed for more than 14 days for acute pain.
The opioid epidemic caused U.S. life expectancy to fall for the second year in a row, marking the first time that has happened since the early 1960s. Death rates also continued to rise.
Following minor surgery, a Kaiser Health News columnist sees up close how easily doctors can prescribe opioid pain pills, and how such prescribing helps fuel the epidemic of opioid addiction.
The country's top public health advocate says the cycle of opioid addiction won't be stopped without more money from Congress and cooperation among federal, state and local officials.
Researchers found two addiction medicines equally effective once treatment started. But there are fundamental differences in the way treatment begins with each drug, complicating the interpretation.
The city of Baltimore says it needs more money to distribute a lifesaving opioid overdose medication. And a recent study finds the cost of treating overdoses in U.S. hospital ICUs has risen sharply.
Letting people get the medicine "without an individual prescription in 45 states is critical in combating this crisis," says the CEO of Narcan maker Adapt Pharma.
The Justice Department pledged nearly $59 million in grants to address the opioid crisis. Here's a look at how that money will affect three communities facing an epidemic.
Such attacks among women and some men with an opioid addiction often go unreported because the victims fear retaliation from drug dealers or charges from police.
Arizona is among the states that have declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, to help with funding and access to data. It's a move the Trump administration has declined to make.
The state's governor and U.S. senators were among those who took umbrage at President Trump's comment in a transcript of a phone conversation Trump had with Mexico's president in January.
Andrea Towson was known in West Baltimore as the go-to person for help getting high. Last year, she nearly died from a fentanyl overdose. "Thank God for another day," she says.
According to an order issued in May, people serving time in White County Jail can shave 30 days off their sentences if they obtain long-term contraception. Critics say the order is unconstitutional.
The Urban Institute reports that Medicaid spending on drugs used to treat opioid addiction and overdoses has risen sharply, raising questions about the potential impact of Medicaid cuts.
Dr. Jerome Adams is credited with persuading then-Gov. Mike Pence to authorize syringe exchanges in the state. If confirmed, public health advocates are hopeful he'll have sway in Washington.
The maker of one medical treatment for opioid abuse has successfully lobbied statehouses around the country to pass policies that tilt addiction treatment practices in favor of the company's drug.
The tribe says these companies regularly filled large, suspicious prescriptions within the Nation's 14 counties in northeastern Oklahoma, leading to hundreds of tribal members' deaths.
