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Florida has struggled for years with opioid overdoses — and the highest rate of HIV infection in the U.S. Lawmakers now hope needle exchanges and a "harm reduction" approach could help save lives.
Many users now mix opioids with stimulants like meth and cocaine — and researchers believe opioids kicked off this new stimulant wave.
A new data analysis by KHN and Johns Hopkins researchers shows that even as the CDC issued warnings, surgeons handed out many times the number of opioid pills needed for post-op pain.
Even as awareness of the opioid crisis grew, prescribing habits of surgeons changed very little from 2011 to 2016, found a data analysis by KHN and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Use this interactive tool to search by doctor or practicing hospital.
The federal government has doled out at least $2.4 billion in state grants since 2017 to address the opioid epidemic, which killed 47,600 people in the U.S. that year alone. But local officials note that drug abuse problems seldom involve only one substance.
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
The widespread availability of naloxone, which reverses overdoses, has radically changed the culture of opioid use on the streets, giving drug users a sense of security and inducing them to seek out the more powerful high of the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
As states struggle to respond to the national drug crisis, officials around the country are watching Oklahoma. The state's attorney general says opioid drugmakers helped ignite a health crisis that has killed thousands of residents.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
Buprenorphine is becoming an increasingly popular choice among doctors in California for treating opioid addiction. Use of methadone, while still more common, has not gained ground in recent years.
New data from the California agency that manages health benefits for 1.5 million public employees, retirees and their families shows that doctors are writing far fewer opioid prescriptions, reflecting a national trend of physicians cutting back on the addictive drugs.
For the seventh year in a row, Missouri will retain its lonely title as the only state without a statewide prescription drug monitoring program. Fears about privacy violations and gun control scuttled the bill yet again, leaving a pastiche of half-step measures in place to fill the void in the fight against prescription drug abuse.
More Republicans, at the statehouse level, are saying research and results support their endorsement of a once-controversial plan to limit disease among drug users.
A study looked at who gets Suboxone prescriptions and found that whites are almost 35 times more likely to get the addiction treatment than African Americans.
In the West and Midwest, 70% of local law enforcement says meth is the bigger threat. It's also a more difficult addiction to treat.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don't have to.
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.
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