opioid-abuse

Pa. awards $6M to fight overdose deaths in underrepresented communities | Tuesday Morning Coffee

BY: - May 16, 2023

'Trends in drug overdose deaths show widening disparities,' a top official said.

COMMENTARY

County-by-county data on Pa.’s opioid deaths during pandemic defied stereotypes | Opinion

BY: - March 22, 2023

By Brian King, Andrea Rishworth,  Louisa M. Holmes, and Ruchi Patel The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the opioid epidemic, according to our new research, which finds that opioid overdoses increased in Pennsylvania in 2020 compared with 2018 and 2019. Yet general trends […]

In this photo illustration, a package of NARCAN (Naloxone) nasal spray sits on the counter at a Walgreens pharmacy, Aug. 9, 2017 in New York City. Starting on Wednesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that no-cost or low cost Naloxone (NARCAN), a drug that can help reverse the effects of an opioid overdose, will be available at all pharmacies across New York state. (Photo Illustration by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

As opioids overdose deaths keep rising, report urges lawmakers to develop new approaches

BY: - March 17, 2023

Drug overdose rates in the U.S. have risen fivefold in the past two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In rural America, the deadly costs of opioids outweigh the dollars tagged to address them

BY: - December 29, 2022

'Most folks know these individuals or know somebody who knows them,' Pamlico County Manager Tim Buck said.

COMMENTARY
A man prepares to inject himself with heroin (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images).

No more empty seats at our holiday tables | Opinion

BY: - December 8, 2022

Overdoses took over 108,000 lives this year. Congress can save lives if it acts quickly.

COMMENTARY

Report: Stigma against people living with addiction entrenched in Pa. | Tuesday Morning Coffee

BY: - April 5, 2022

Hard hit by the opioid epidemic, Pa. residents take a dim view of people struggling with addiction, a new poll has found.

Senate Democratic panel takes up improving Pa. treatment centers amid rising overdose deaths

BY: - December 7, 2021

Though the Wolf administration and Republican-controlled Legislature have supported bills to make treatment more accessible and regulate the distribution and disposal of medications, overdose deaths have continued to increase, with a three-year high in 2020.

COMMENTARY

How the pandemic spread fentanyl across the U.S, causing overdose deaths to spike | Analysis

BY: - November 24, 2021

Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs were responsible for almost two-thirds of the overdose deaths recorded in the 12 months ending in April 2021.

Amid nationwide injectable Naloxone shortage, Pa. entities rely on Narcan supply

BY: - October 27, 2021

Naloxone, an injectable, intramuscular drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the rapid reversal of opioid overdoses, has been in scant supply since Pfizer, the drug’s maker, ran into manufacturing issues in 2020, causing the price of the Naloxone to soar even as demand for the drug increased during pandemic-fueled shutdowns, The Guardian reported earlier this month. 

On Overdose Awareness Day, families, advocates call for Pa. to ‘recommit’ to fighting opioid epidemic

BY: - August 31, 2021

Joined by the Pennsylvania chapter of Team Sharing, a national nonprofit composed of parents who have lost children to substance use disorder, Smith called on the state government to “recommit” to managing the opioid epidemic. 

COMMENTARY

Pa.’s emergency declaration is over. The opioid epidemic isn’t. We have more work to do | Opinion

BY: - August 29, 2021

We call on our leaders to work with those in the treatment space to create more prevention initiatives and ensure that we end this epidemic. 

COMMENTARY

Spike in opioid overdose deaths during pandemic reinforces need for a holistic approach to public health issues | Opinion

BY: - June 16, 2021

The start of one new public health crisis didn't mean the end of another.