opioid overdoses

As in other states, including Florida, California officials are stepping up efforts to combat the spread of xylazine, a powerful animal sedative that’s increasingly being used by people, often with devastating results

Law enforcement, firefighters and paramedics can apply to get free naloxone at select Walmart pharmacies in Florida.

The Florida Department of Health has issued thousands of free Narcan kits but is still trying to make more available to the public.

Advisers to the FDA put the opioid overdose-reversal drug a step closer to being sold without a needing a prescription. Even if approved, the medication may not reach many people who need it.

The Biden administration will use data from EMS first responders to track overdoses. The focus will be on improving response to a public health crisis that kills more than 100,000 Americans annually.

While adult overdoses surged in the last decades, teens hadn't seen the same kind of death rates. But now fatal overdoses nearly doubled in one year and continued to rise in 2021.

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

The bill would allow naloxone to be administered by school staff trained to recognize an opioid overdose.

The agency hopes people struggling with addiction will go to its website and sign up for free recovery resources or to receive Narcan.

COVID survivors are at risk from a possible second pandemic, this time of opioid addiction, given the high rate of painkillers being prescribed to these patients, health experts say.