August has become the month American municipalities formally confront opioid addiction and overdose, and the observances increasingly come with something concrete attached.

Local proclamations across the country now pair remembrance with free naloxone distribution and overdose response training, building toward International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31.

Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, offers a representative example of how these local efforts are structured, and of why the model has drawn attention beyond its own county.

The Local Model in Practice

The Town of Mount Pleasant proclaimed August 2026 as Overdose Awareness Month, joining local organizations offering free resources to residents affected by addiction and overdose. The South Carolina Department of Health reported more than 1,000 overdose deaths in the state in 2024.

Mayor Will Haynie framed the town’s approach around supporting people without judgment, and pointed to partnerships with WakeUp Carolina and the Charleston Center. He described the state’s recognition of Mount Pleasant’s partnership work as a model, crediting the people behind the town’s police department.

The police department has adjusted how it approaches people experiencing substance addiction and their families, acknowledging that the presence of an officer is not always the way families open up.

Lani Jumper, who directs overdose prevention work at WakeUp Carolina, described programming that reaches multiple populations, including gatherings for mothers, a dad-to-dad group, and groups for young adults and individuals. Jumper framed the target plainly, saying the work is not finished until overdose deaths reach zero.

The town’s observance culminates in a ceremony at Town Hall on August 27 that begins with overdose prevention and Narcan training, distributes free naloxone kits, and closes with a luminary ceremony.

Why the August 31 Date Anchors It Nationally

International Overdose Awareness Day falls on August 31 each year and functions as the coordinating point for these local efforts. Events registered under it span states and countries, which is what turns a scattering of municipal proclamations into something closer to a national moment.

The practical significance is distribution. Naloxone training sessions attached to these events put the medication into the hands of people who are physically near someone at risk, which is the only place it can work.

Understanding Opioids, Fentanyl, and Naloxone

Opioids are a class of drugs that includes prescription pain medications, heroin, and synthetic compounds such as fentanyl. They suppress the brain’s drive to breathe at high doses, which is the mechanism behind fatal overdose.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid substantially more potent than heroin by weight, and it now appears in counterfeit pills and in supplies sold as other substances entirely. That unpredictability is why an overdose can happen to someone who believes they know their dose.

Naloxone, sold under brand names including Narcan, reverses an opioid overdose by displacing opioids from receptors in the brain. It works within minutes, it does nothing if opioids are not present, and it is available over the counter without a prescription.

Harm Reduction and Treatment for Opioid Addiction

Carrying naloxone is the single most direct intervention available to the general public. Fentanyl test strips let people check a supply before use. Neither approach requires anyone to be ready to stop, which is the point of both.

For treatment, medication is the evidence-based standard for opioid use disorder. Buprenorphine and methadone reduce withdrawal and cravings and are associated with lower mortality. Naltrexone is a third option for people who have already completed withdrawal.

Peer support runs alongside medication rather than in competition with it. Narcotics Anonymous meetings are free, widely available, and open to anyone with a desire to stop using. Many people combine NA attendance with medication and clinical care.

Finding Help for Opioid Addiction

If August’s observances prompt you to act, there are a few concrete steps. Get naloxone and learn to use it, whether or not you think you need it. Local health departments, many pharmacies, and harm reduction organizations distribute it free.

Find NA meetings near you if peer support is what you want. Ask any treatment program whether it offers medication for opioid use disorder on site. You can call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) to learn more about your treatment options today.

Michigan will observe August 31 as Overdose Awareness Day, under a proclamation issued by Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist II.

For anyone affected by opioid addiction in the state, the figures the proclamation cites are worth reading closely, because they describe both real progress and a gap that is not closing.

August 31 is recognized internationally as a day to acknowledge overdose deaths and the grief of the people left behind. The state describes the day’s purpose as being in part to “publicly challenge the stigma associated with substance use disorders and overdose.”

The Opioid Crisis by the Numbers

Michigan recorded 1,877 drug overdose deaths in 2024, a rate of 18.5 deaths per 100,000 residents. Preliminary figures for 2025 showed fewer than 1,800 deaths, which the state describes as a continued decrease.

Another figure sets the scale of exposure. In 2023, nearly 1.8 million people in Michigan aged 12 and older reported using an illicit drug in the past month.

Naloxone use tracks the same picture from the emergency response side. In 2024, Emergency Medical Services recorded naloxone administrations at 10.5 per 1,000 patient encounters. The state notes that naloxone matters not only for first responders and emergency personnel but for family, friends, and people outside EMS entirely.

Where the Decline Is Not Reaching

The proclamation includes a figure that complicates the good news. In 2023, the rate of fatal drug overdoses among Black, non-Hispanic residents in Michigan was nearly three times the rate among white, non-Hispanic residents.

Black residents also experienced a higher rate of overdoses resulting in emergency department visits. A statewide decline can coexist with a widening disparity, and this is what that looks like in one state’s data. Falling totals do not tell you whose deaths fell.

Understanding Overdose and Naloxone

Opioids slow breathing. In an overdose, breathing slows or stops before the heart does, which is why the window for intervention exists at all. Signs include unresponsiveness, slow or gurgling breathing, pinpoint pupils, blue or grey lips and fingertips, and skin that is cold and clammy.

Naloxone reverses opioid overdose by displacing opioids from receptors in the brain. It works within minutes, does nothing to a person who has not taken opioids, and cannot be misused.

It is available over the counter at pharmacies. Because fentanyl is potent and long-acting relative to naloxone, more than one dose is sometimes needed, and emergency services should be called regardless.

Michigan has a standing order allowing pharmacists to dispense naloxone without an individual prescription, and a Good Samaritan law providing immunity from certain possession charges for people who seek help during an overdose. Knowing that second point matters, because fear of arrest is a documented reason people hesitate to call.

Harm Reduction and Treatment

Medication for opioid use disorder has the strongest evidence base of any treatment. Buprenorphine and methadone reduce cravings and withdrawal by acting on opioid receptors.

Naltrexone blocks opioid effects but requires full withdrawal before starting. These are treatments in their own right rather than steps toward some more legitimate form of recovery.

Fentanyl test strips can detect fentanyl in pills or powder, though they do not measure how much is present. Counterfeit pills pressed to look like prescription medication frequently contain it.

Peer support runs alongside all of this. Narcotics Anonymous meetings are free and available across Michigan, including virtual options. Some people use NA with medication, some use one without the other, and neither choice makes the other less valid.

Marking the Day Locally

The state says it is joining the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and community networks to give people a way to mourn publicly without guilt or shame. Vigils, resource fairs, and naloxone trainings are common around August 31, and many are free and open to anyone.

If you have lost someone, these events exist for that. If you are in active use or early recovery, they are also among the easier places to pick up naloxone and ask questions without being asked for identification or insurance.

Finding Help for Opioid Addiction

Narcotics.com maintains a national NA meeting directory searchable by state and city, with filters for meeting type, format, and language, including virtual and Spanish-language meetings.

Our Michigan pages cover meetings across the state, and our treatment content covers detox, inpatient and outpatient care, and medication for opioid use disorder.

For treatment referrals, the SAMHSA National Helpline is available at 1-800-662-4357, free and confidential, 24 hours a day, in English and Spanish.

The fentanyl supply moving through five Midwestern states is changing shape, and the shift matters for anyone tracking overdose risk. Federal seizure data released August 10 shows fentanyl pill seizures falling while fentanyl powder seizures climbing sharply in the same territory.

The DEA’s Omaha Field Division seized more than 67,000 fentanyl pills across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota during the first seven months of 2026. The agency characterized that pill figure as down from previous years. Over the same stretch, fentanyl powder seizures rose nearly 87% compared with the same period in 2025.

The Shifting Numbers

Taken together, pill and powder seizures in the five-state division account for more than four million potentially lethal doses, according to the DEA.

The agency reported both figures without offering an explanation for the divergence, and seizure totals reflect enforcement activity as well as supply. Together, they’re an indirect measure of what’s circulating. Still, a substantial move toward powder in a region where pressed counterfeit pills have dominated represents a meaningful change in the local drug supply.

Powder and Pills Carry Different Risks

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid primarily used clinically for severe pain. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl is far deadlier than other street drugs, so small variations in a dose have outsized effects on breathing.

Both forms of illicitly manufactured fentanyl remain dangerous. Furthermore, neither is safer than the other in any practical sense.

The risks are distributed differently, though. Counterfeit pills’ danger lies in its misrepresentation. A pill pressed to resemble a prescription medication may contain fentanyl, and the person buying it believes they’re taking something else entirely.

Powder introduces a different problem. It is commonly mixed into or sold as other substances, and dosing within a single batch can be uneven. Harm reduction organizations have long emphasized that people who use drugs can’t assess potency by sight. That’s why they recommend test strips and starting with a smaller amount.

The Supply Reaches Buyers

The DEA paired its seizure figures with a warning about drug sales on social media as students returned to school. Sellers advertise through posts and disappearing stories, often using code words and emoji, then moving conversations to encrypted apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram. Payments run through consumer apps including Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App, with delivery by package.

“Social media is just another avenue that drug dealers are using to push counterfeit pills and other poisons to a new generation,” reported Dustin Gillespie, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Omaha Field Division.

The DEA also released a video series for parents and caregivers called “Hidden on Your Kid’s Phone.”

Treatment Options Abound

Naloxone, often sold under brand names like Narcan, reverses an opioid overdose by displacing opioids from receptors in the brain. It’s available over the counter at pharmacies nationwide and free through many health departments, syringe service programs and community distribution sites. Due to fentanyl’s potency, more than one dose is sometimes needed, and remember to always call emergency services.

Medications for opioid use disorder are the most strongly evidence-supported treatment available. Methadone, dispensed through licensed opioid treatment programs, and buprenorphine, available through outpatient providers and by telehealth, reduce overdose death substantially. Naltrexone is an additional option after a period without opioids.

These medications are treatment, not a lesser substitute for it. Folks taking buprenorphine or methadone as prescribed are in recovery.

NA for Peer Support

Peer support works alongside medication rather than in competition with it. Narcotics Anonymous meetings run throughout the Midwest and the rest of the country. In person and online options are available, including formats built for people attending for the first time.

Some people find a 12-step program central to their recovery. Others build recovery through medication, therapy, SMART Recovery or a combination. All are legitimate paths, and many folks use several at once.

Getting started is easy. Our browsable directory lists NA meetings for all 50 states, searchable by city and meeting type.

For help finding treatment, our helpline is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day at 800-934-1582(Sponsored) . For anyone in crises, call or text 988.

Border interdiction numbers don’t measure how safe the drug supply is, and a report from Texas illustrates the gap as smuggling continues. For anyone living or supporting those with opioid addiction, the practical takeaway from falling border statistics is smaller than the headline suggests.

People along the Southern border region in Texas remain vigilant despite a drop in border crossing statistics. Even though The Longhorn State features many inpatient programs and local organizations like Narcotics Anonymous, drugs still move through rural areas and South Texas ranchland.

The Numbers’ Actual Measurements

US Customs and Border Protection reports that illegal border crossings have declined significantly. As of January, they had fallen 84% from 2025.

That figure counts crossings, not drug seizures and not drug volume that enter the U.S. Being precise counts because a decline in one doesn’t establish a decline in the other. Indeed, overdoses among vulnerable Texan groups, such as in prisons, have skyrocketed.

Rio Grande City Police Chief Jose Solis described a slowdown in the drugs he sees locally, dating back to 2019 and 2020. The larger loads have decreased compared with when he started in 2007. Vehicle pursuits, once far more common, have quieted down.

Mike Vickers, a Brooks County rancher, relayed that suspected drug carriers continue to move throughout the region. He described a camera detection that showed suspected drug dealers carrying backpacks. Further detections between Herbertville and Zapata feature others carrying backpacks along pipeline routes.

Those incidents aren’t daily, he clarified, but happen a few times each month.

Thus, drugs still enter the U.S. via two means. Large vehicle loads occur, but have declined, according to local law enforcement. Small volumes still cross on foot through ranchland according to the people who live there.

Analysis and Limitations

The source doesn’t report drug seizure totals, overdose figures for the region, or any data on what substances are involved. No claim can be made from it about fentanyl availability in any particular city, and none is made here.

This matters because interdiction is upstream of the problem people actually encounter. Supply reaching a given neighborhood, the potency of its contents, and any adulterants it contains are determined much closer to the point of sale than the border.

Opioids and Overdose Risk

Keep in mind the bigger picture. Opioids consist of prescription medications and illegal street drugs. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid potent enough that very small amounts can suppress breathing and now turns up in substances people didn’t intend to buy.

An opioid overdose can stop a victim from breathing. Look for unresponsiveness, gurgling or choking sounds and discolored lips and fingertips. It’s a medical emergency, and the first step is to call 911.

Naloxone reverses opioid overdose. It works within minutes, and is safe to give even if you’re not certain opioids are involved because it causes no harm to someone who has not taken opioids. It doesn’t reverse non-opioid sedatives, so still call 911.

Harm Reduction and Treatment

Nothing about a shift in border enforcement changes what reduces individual risk, and the tools are the same ones as last year.

Naloxone belongs within reach of anyone who uses opioids and anyone close to them. Harm reduction organizations throughout Texas and pharmacies distribute it free or at low cost without a prescription.

Fentanyl test strips allow folks to check substances before taking them. They aren’t a guarantee but provide information not previously available.

Medication for opioid use disorder has proven to reduce overdose deaths. Meds work alongside peer support groups rather than instead of them.

NA Effective in Fighting Opioid Addiction

For anyone in South Texas or elsewhere looking for a next step, several cost nothing.

NA meetings are free and ask that you only show up and partake. Meetings run daily across the entire nation, in person and online, and Spanish-language meetings are widely available in border communities.

You can get started by browsing our directory. We feature NA chapters in all 50 states, searchable by community and city.

You can also dial 800-934-1582(Sponsored) for free and confidential guidance with our specialists. Also, remember that the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is reachable by call or text.

Fentanyl overdose deaths were cut in half since mid-2023, and two researchers who went looking for the reason came back with an uncomfortable answer. The interventions most often credited don’t appear to explain a drop that size.

Greg Midgette and Peter Reuter of the University of Maryland published their analysis on August 6. The findings matter for anyone using opioids or supporting loved ones impacted because it says something specific about factors that haven’t changed.

The Opioid Crisis Continues

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times deadlier than morphine, active at doses too small to see. Fentanyl turns up in counterfeit pills and in stimulants sold as cocaine or methamphetamine, often without the buyer knowing.

Between late 2021 and June 2023, the country averaged nearly 10,000 overdose deaths a month, six times the figure for 2000 and the peak of a 40 year climb. Then it reversed. The total fell from about 110,000 deaths in June 2023 to 72,000 by August 2025 nationwide rather than regional.

One number shows how specific this is. Fatal overdoses not involving fentanyl have held steady at 21,000-22,000 a year since 2018. Any changes took place in the fentanyl market.

Analysis Limitations

Naloxone, sold as Narcan, reverses opioid overdose, needs no prescription, and doesn’t harm folks if given to someone who hasn’t taken opioids.

Naloxone became available over the counter in March 2023, right as the decline began, but an early study found only about 9% of pharmacies stocked it. Emergency calls involving naloxone dropped 25% to 30% between 2022 and 2025. The authors read that as fewer overdoses taking place rather than more being caught in time. Canada, which expanded naloxone seven years earlier, saw its decline at roughly the same time.

The buprenorphine picture is similar. Prescribers jumped from about 42,000 to nearly 54,000 a month, but the number of patients receiving it changed little. CDC reports the national dispensing rate stayed stable from 2019 through 2024, and there was no increase in people admitted to treatment with opioids as their main problem.

The authors are careful here. Naloxone and buprenorphine almost certainly saved lives. But neither is large enough to explain the overall decline.

Xylazine and Naloxone

The supply-side explanations find more traction, and one carries direct safety information. Xylazine, a veterinary sedative, showed up in about 20% of fentanyl powder in early 2022 and close to 40% two years later. 

Drug usage has also shifted due to new synthetics like xylazine. Interviews with 52 people who had recently survived an overdose reversal in two Midwestern cities found 46 reported “using less, changing route of administration, or abstaining entirely.” People described avoiding dealers known to carry xylazine and switching from injecting to smoking, driven by fear of skin wounds and by the drug not producing the expected effect.

If that pattern holds broadly, xylazine may have pushed people toward safer practices without anyone intending it. The authors call the evidence largely qualitative and the causal link far from proven.

The practical point is not in doubt. Xylazine isn’t an opioid, so naloxone doesn’t reverse its sedation. That’s no reason to skip naloxone. Fentanyl is almost always present alongside it, and breathing is what naloxone protects. Give it, call 911, stay with the person.

Consistency Matters More Than Strength

The other supply-side factor is variation. The Street Drug Analysis Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tested more than 23,000 samples from 42 states as of early August 2026 and found that fluctuation in fentanyl content drives overdose risk more than average potency does. Someone whose tolerance stems from taking weaker drugs is in acute danger when they hit a strong batch.

Greater consistency alone could reduce deaths without the drugs weakening. The researchers treat this as a partial contributor at most, since the decline began before pill consistency was widely reported and most illicit fentanyl remains in powder form.

Harm Reduction and Treatment

Harm reduction and treatment are parallel paths, not a sequence where one earns the other. Fentanyl test strips identify contamination, and not using alone means someone’s there to respond.

Medication for opioid use disorder works. Buprenorphine and methadone reduce cravings and withdrawal and lower overdose risk, and naltrexone is an option after withdrawal. Since access hasn’t widened much in practice, it’s worth pressing a prescriber rather than assuming a referral moves quickly.

Narcotics Anonymous meetings run alongside medical treatment rather than against it. Attending doesn’t require having already stopped, nor does it require giving up medication. 

Help for Fentanyl and Opioid Use

That’s where we come in. Our browsable directory indexes NA meetings nationwide by city, with filters for open, closed, virtual, and Spanish language meetings.

You can also dial 800-934-1582(Sponsored) for free, confidential information 24 hours a day. If you or someone else is in crisis, call or text 988.

The national overdose picture continues to improve, and the newest federal numbers put a figure on it. Despite the constant threat of new illicit drugs in the market, CDC provisional data predicts 68,641 drug overdose deaths in the United States for the 12 months ending February 2026, a 12.1% decline from 2025. 

For anyone living with opioid addiction or supporting a loved one in recovery, the trend line is real, alongside the number underneath it.

The Opioid Crisis on Retreat?

The estimate comes from the National Vital Statistics System back in July 2026 and based on data available for analysis on July 5. It covers March 2025 through February 2026 and compares numbers against March 2024 through February 2025.

A predicted 68,641 deaths over 12 months works out to roughly 188 a day. Advocates, including grassroots organizations like Narcotics Anonymous, can take heart that the numbers align with a steady drop in overdose deaths nationwide since 2023.

Two caveats matter for reading this correctly. CDC recommends the predicted provisional counts because they’re adjusted for incomplete reporting. The agency also notes those counts are most likely underestimated, typically rising over the first several months after they are posted. Each monthly release also updates all prior estimates, so figures shift between releases.

The Data Doesn’t Show the Whole Picture

The provisional release reports how many people died and over what period. But it doesn’t explain why the number is falling.

CDC maintains separate resources that fill in parts of that picture, including the SUDORS dashboard for fatal overdose detail, the DOSE dashboards for nonfatal overdoses seen in emergency departments and inpatient settings, a clinical drug test dashboard tracking fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, dispensing rate maps for opioids, and the Fentalog study, which tests toxicology samples from suspected opioid-involved overdoses.

Anyone reading a single headline percentage should treat it as one measure among several rather than a verdict on the epidemic.

Opioids and Overdose Risk

Opioids include prescription medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and morphine, along with illegal street drugs. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid substantially deadlier than morphine and now appears throughout much of the illicit supply, often blended in substances a person didn’t intend to buy.

An opioid overdose slows and can stop breathing. Signs include unresponsiveness, slow or stopped breathing, gurgling or choking sounds, and blue or gray lips, fingertips, or skin. It is a medical emergency. Call 911.

Harm Reduction & Treatment

A falling national number doesn’t lower individual risk, and the tools that reduce that risk are the same ones as last year.

Naloxone can reverse opioid overdoses quickly and is safe to give if you are unsure whether opioids are involved. It also doesn’t harm someone who hasn’t taken opioids. It doesn’t reverse non-opioid sedatives such as xylazine, so give it and call 911 regardless.

Naloxone should be on hand for anyone who uses opioids and for the people around them. Health departments, harm reduction organizations, and many pharmacies distribute it free or at low cost, usually without a prescription.

Fentanyl test strips let a person check a substance before use. They’re not a guarantee of safety, but they provide information that was not previously available.

Medication for opioid use disorder, including methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, has the strongest evidence base for reducing overdose death. It’s treatment, not a lesser substitute for abstinence, and folks often match it with peer support.

NA Helped the Decline

Speaking of peer support, reach out to those who understand your background if you’re not sure where to start, or if you just need a shoulder to lean on for a rough spell.

NA meetings are free to attend and require nothing more than showing up. Our online directory covers meetings nationwide with filters for open and closed meetings, virtual and in-person format, language, and meeting type. 

You can also call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) to speak to an expert about opioid treatment programs and connect with office-based providers to start medication for opioid use disorders. Some do so on a first visit.

Two state alerts and local overdose deaths point the same direction in Northeast Ohio. Even though The Buckeye State features a wide range of programs to deal with substance misuse, including local Narcotics Anonymous chapters on the local level, a new wave of substances like xylazine threaten to increase the human toll. 

This time, there’s a catch. The substances driving opioid overdose deaths are increasingly not the ones people think they are buying.

Matthew Vanyo, director of the Westshore Enforcement Bureau Drug Task Force, reported that 18 overdose deaths in Cuyahoga County have been directly linked to xylazine, often mixed with other drugs, from 2025 through the present.

“If you are buying illegal drugs on the street, just know you never know what’s going to be in that drug,” Vanyo relayed. “You have no clue.”

The Ohio Alerts

The Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center recently issued two public safety alerts.

The first covers orphine analogs, a group of potent synthetic opioids. Like other opioids, they suppress breathing, and their potency raises the risk of a fatal overdose.

The second covers xylazine and medetomidine, two veterinary sedatives that now turn up mixed into the illicit drug supply. Neither has approval for human use.

Vanyo described how people receive combinations of contaminated drugs they never chose.

“The user thinks they’re only getting drug A, but they’re getting xylazine and medetomidine and fentanyl, and that’s aiding or the cause of a fatal overdose,” Vanyo pointed out.

The Substances Involved

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid many times deadlier than morphine. It’s now common in the illicit supply across drug classes, including in counterfeit pills.

Xylazine and medetomidine are sedatives, not opioids. They slow heart rate and breathing through a different mechanism, which is what makes them dangerous alongside opioids like fentanyl. Two depressants acting at once compound the effect on breathing.

Xylazine also causes wounds that worsen quickly without care.

“The one unfortunate byproduct of xylazine abuse is open wounds that, if not taken care of, will eat down the skin,” Vanyo pointed out.

Anyone who develops a wound after using drugs should have it seen by a clinician early. These wounds respond to treatment, and delaying care turns them serious.

Naloxone Still Matters in an Opioid Overdose

Officials noted that naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan, may not fully reverse an overdose involving these combinations, because naloxone works only on opioids. Many local Ohio neighborhoods have made Narcan readily available.

Authorities recommend giving naloxone faster and calling 911. Naloxone reverses the opioid portion of the overdose, which usually stops someone’s breathing. When a non-opioid sedative is also involved, additional doses or emergency medical care may be needed, and the person might stay sedated after the opioid effect is reversed.

Basically, give naloxone, call 911, stay with the person, and stand ready to give another dose. Someone who’s breathing again but still unresponsive still needs medical attention.

Enforcement’s Limits

Vanyo directly stated that arrests alone won’t lower the death count. Rather, connecting people to care remains essential to the task force’s job.

“For those who want to go into recovery,” Vanyo reaffirmed, “we help them get onto that pathway of care for themselves.”

The task force plans to host Operation Bridge on August 26 from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Lakewood Women’s Pavilion on Lake Avenue in Lakewood, Ohio. Nearly 40 organizations will be on hand with resources, including treatment providers, recovery services and the Homeless Coalition.

Vanyo concluded that the reach of the problem extends past the people using drugs. “It affects communities abroad, the county and the entire state.”

NA: Help for Opioid Addiction

Treatment for opioid addiction includes medications such as buprenorphine, methadone and naltrexone, which reduce cravings and withdrawal and help reduce overdose death rates. These work alongside counseling and peer support rather than in competition with it.

Speaking of peer support, Narcotics Anonymous meetings are among the most effective steps to take to get help. Meetings offer free peer support and run throughout every neighborhood in Ohio and the rest of the country, including evening and virtual options. 

Feel free to use our online directory to find NA meetings by city and meeting type. You can also call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) to speak with an expert and discuss treatment options.

Most people given opioids for short-term pain stop taking them well before the pain is gone. That’s the reassuring finding from a large new federally supported study. The harder finding is what stays behind in the medicine cabinet, and why leftover pills should be properly trashed. However, many prescriptions stay in the cabinet, which leads to risks of opioid addiction and overdose.

Researchers reported that roughly two in three patients had unused opioid tablets after an acute pain episode. The study was backed by the Food and Drug Administration and is intended to inform FDA guidance on prescribing for specific conditions.

Opioids and Overdose Risk

Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Opioids include prescription medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine and codeine alongside heroin and fentanyl. With sustained use the body adapts, so more is needed for the same effect and stopping produces withdrawal.

Most overdose deaths in the United States now involve illicitly manufactured fentanyl rather than prescribed medication. So, leftover pills matter less as a direct overdose source than as a first exposure on a path toward opioid addiction. An opioid overdose produces unresponsiveness, very slow or stopped breathing, and blue or gray lips and fingertips.

The Study Tracked Opioid Pills

The prospective cohort study followed 1,708 opioid-naive patients between September 2020 and March 2023. They came from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, Monument Health, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Yale-New Haven Health. Dental practices in several Southeastern states also participated. Molly Moore Jeffery of Mayo Clinic led the study. The analysis ran from April 2023 to February 2026.

Patients were enrolled from emergency departments, primary and urgent care clinics, dental practices, and after cesarean delivery or knee replacement who opted for opioids following surgery rather than without. All were adults who had never used opioids, apart from adolescents aged 15 to 17 having impacted molars removed at one site. Participants completed digital surveys for up to 180 days tracking pain, medication use, and side effects.

Opioid Use Ended Before Pain Did

Among the 1,502 patients who reported a pain level at least once, pain took a median of 20 days to resolve, regardless of which treatment they received. Median opioid use lasted 7 days.

That gap is the study’s central observation. Most participants stopped taking opioids while still in some pain, which suggests they used their meds for the worst stretch of the episode rather than until full recovery. This find correlated with other research that shows opioids don’t ease long-term pain.

Recovery time varied sharply by condition. Surgical pain took a median of 74 days to resolve and low back pain 69 days, while kidney stone pain resolved in a median of 8 days.

The authors concluded that many patients are well served by current guidance recommending a short initial opioid prescription. Some patients needed opioids longer and that treatment should be tailored to individual needs.

Leftover Pills and Opioid Addiction Risk

About 67% of participants reported having leftover opioids. The study documented that surplus but did not track what happened to it.

That distinction matters. Unused opioids sitting in homes create routes to diversion, accidental ingestion by children, and unsupervised use later by the patient or someone else. The FDA has previously noted that studies of post-surgical prescribing commonly find a majority of dispensed tablets go unused.

The practical response is unglamorous. One simple way to decrease the risk of addiction is to ask for the smallest quantity that covers the worst days, store it securely, and dispose of the rest.

Those Who Kept Using Longest

Roughly 10% of participants continued using opioids for at least 90 days. Persistence was highest among those who reported frequent pain in the six months before enrolling.

Prolonged use isn’t the same as opioid addiction, and the study diagnosed no one. It measured how long people took medication, not who developed a disorder. Extended use is, however, a recognized signal that warrants clinical attention rather than an automatic refill.

The findings are descriptive and can’t establish cause and effect. Treatment data came from patient self-report rather than confirmation against pharmacy or health records. Enrollment was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and by technical problems linking patient accounts to health records. The study also didn’t compare opioids against nonopioid treatment head to head.

Harm Reduction and Treatment Options

Naloxone reverses an opioid overdose and works within minutes. Fentanyl test strips can detect fentanyl in a supply, though not how much is present.

Medication for opioid use disorder, including methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, reduces overdose death. 

Peer support is a complementary path. Narcotics Anonymous meetings are free and require no insurance, referral, or diagnosis, and many people use medication and peer support together.

NA Fights Opioid Addiction

To dispose of leftover medication, the Drug Enforcement Administration maintains a year-round collection site locator, and many pharmacies accept returns.

If you want support, feel free to browse our directory to find NA meetings by state and city, including online and Spanish-language options. For those seeking treatment, call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) and ask our experts specifically about medications and whether it continues after any inpatient stay.

For years, the working assumption in overdose prevention was that injecting carried the highest risk and that moving away from it lowered that risk. A new analysis of people affected by heroin addiction in Baltimore complicates the picture. It found no evidence that any one route of use was riskier than another. In this case, higher overdose odds correlated with using several routes during the same period.

The study matters because the way folks in the United States use opioids has changed sharply since 2020. Even though states like Maryland feature a wide range of addiction treatment programs, from inpatient care in modern facilities to local Narcotics Anonymous chapters, the shifting drug scene continues to take its toll on residents and their families.

The Opioid Crisis in Baltimore

Drug overdoses have caused more than one million deaths in the United States since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Despite efforts and funding to lower overdose numbers, the rates remain near historic highs.

The mix has shifted underneath those totals. Multiple studies documented a move away from injecting and toward smoking and nasal inhalation starting during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2022, CDC data showed smoking-related overdose deaths had passed injection-related overdose deaths.

The Baltimore Study’s Findings

Researchers used the ALIVE cohort, a community-recruited study of adults in Baltimore who have a history of injecting drugs. Participants attend visits twice a year and report their drug use over the previous six months.

The heroin analysis covered 1,121 participants across 4,396 study visits. Of those visits, nearly 890% were from adults aged 40 to 79, 33% by women, and 77% by Black participants. Past-six-month overdose was reported at 11.6% of visits.

Injection alone was the most common pattern at 34% of visits, followed by injection with nasal inhalation at 29% and nasal inhalation alone at 28%. All three routes together accounted for 4%.

Using all three routes associated with higher overdose odds than injecting alone, with an adjusted odds ratio of 2.37. Compared with nasal inhalation, the adjusted odds ratio was 2.87. Using both injection and nasal inhalation associated with higher odds than just nasal inhalation, at 1.78. The authors reported similar patterns for cocaine.

The Design Matters Regardless of Location

Earlier research on this question was largely cross-sectional. This means it compared different people at a single point in time. That approach cannot separate the effect of a route from everything else that differs between people, including which drugs they use, how often, and at what potency.

This analysis instead looked at within-person change. It asked whether the same participant had different overdose odds during periods when they used drugs differently. This was the first study to examine the relationship this way in a longitudinal, community-recruited sample.

The finding doesn’t offer a direct proof of cause. It’s also based on one cohort in one city whose participants all have a history of injecting, even as the overdose rates in Maryland have fallen from its peak. It shouldn’t be read as guidance for any individual.

Fentanyl’s Role in the Shift

The authors situate their work against a changing drug supply. Fentanyl became more common in non-injection formulations before and during the pandemic. Xylazine emerged as a contaminant. Harm reduction services, routine health care and treatment access were all disrupted.

Fentanyl’s presence means the contents and strength of a given supply are frequently unknown to the person using it. That unpredictability partly explains why the authors treat unfamiliar or shifting use practices as worth studying.

Opioids and How to Handle Overdose

Opioid classifications include heroin, fentanyl and prescription meds. They act on receptors in the brain and spinal cord that regulate pain, and at high enough doses they slow or stop breathing, which is what makes an overdose fatal.

Naloxone, sold under brand names including Narcan, reverses an opioid overdose by displacing opioids from those receptors. It is available over the counter and works within minutes.

Harm reduction programs supplying sterile equipment for drug administration may help people who use drugs reduce overdose risk. That is their recommendation based on these findings, and approaches to equipment distribution vary by state and locality.

Beyond equipment, medication for opioid use disorder remains the most established treatment for heroin addiction. Buprenorphine and methadone reduce withdrawal and cravings by acting on the same receptors, and naltrexone blocks opioid effects after withdrawal is complete. These medications are typically paired with counseling.

Peer support runs alongside treatment rather than replacing it. Narcotics Anonymous meetings give people in recovery from heroin addiction and other opioid use disorders regular contact with others working through the same thing, and meetings are free to attend.

NA a First Defense Against Heroin Addiction

If you or someone close to you is dealing with heroin addiction or another opioid use disorder, several steps are available now.

• Get naloxone and keep it accessible. Pharmacies stock it over the counter, and many local harm reduction programs distribute it at no cost.
• Ask about fentanyl test strips, where they’re legal and available.
• Contact an opioid treatment program or a buprenorphine prescriber to discuss medication options.

Our online directory lists NA meetings by state and city, with filters for meeting type and virtual options. You can find something nearby without waiting for an appointment. Feel free to browse our listings or call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) to speak with an expert.

The leader of an international drug trafficking organization operating through Southern California was sentenced on July 9 to 240 months, or 20 years, in federal prison. 

For people living with narcotic addiction and the families around them, it’s a reason to celebrate. To be sure, The Golden State offers a wide breadth of programs ranging from inpatient care to grassroots Narcotics Anonymous programs to combat substance misuse. However, cases like this one shape the illicit supply without changing the day-to-day work of finding treatment and staying safe.

The Court’s Findings

United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt sentenced Guramrit Sidhu in the Central District of California. Sidhu pled guilty on March 26 to one count of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. That charge, brought under the federal statute known as the kingpin statute, applies to those who organize or supervise a large-scale drug operation rather than simply participate in one.

Under his plea agreement, Sidhu led an organization that trafficked drugs out of the United States between September 2020 and February 2023. Over six weeks from mid-September to October 2022, he orchestrated eight separate drug loads totaling approximately 1,150 pounds of methamphetamine and 765 pounds of cocaine. Law enforcement seized all of it. Prosecutors estimated the wholesale value at roughly $15 million to $17 million.

After purchasing bulk quantities in the United States, Sidhu arranged transport by long-haul semi-truck across interstate highways. Couriers used phone numbers and currency serial numbers as identifying tokens during handoffs.

Sidhu came into federal custody in October 2024 after the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs secured his extradition. He’s the eighth defendant in this case to plead guilty thus far. Others received federal prison terms ranging from 27-108 months.

The investigation involved the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task Force, federal authorities, and international law enforcement partners.

Stimulants in the Current Supply

Methamphetamine and cocaine are stimulants. They increase alertness, heart rate, and blood pressure, and they carry their own overdose risk, which can present as chest pain, agitation, seizures, hyperthermia, or stroke rather than the slowed breathing seen with opioids.

Stimulant use disorder doesn’t currently have an FDA-approved medication comparable to methadone or buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Treatment relies on behavioral approaches, contingency management and peer support. That’s one reason support groups matter so much for people recovering from stimulant use.

A separate and important point: the loads described in this case were methamphetamine and cocaine. Court documents don’t describe fentanyl in these seizures, and nothing here should be read as saying otherwise. Nationally, however, fentanyl contamination of the stimulant supply remains a documented risk, which is why the harm reduction guidance below applies to stimulants and not just opioids.

Enforcement in Action

Large seizures remove products from the market and can disrupt distribution networks. But they don’t reduce the number of people who wake up tomorrow with cravings, withdrawal, or a use disorder they want help with. Supply disruption can also push the illicit market toward substitutes of unknown or mixed composition.

Even though the number of fentanyl cases in LA County has declined in recent years, residents need to stay vigilant lest an addiction or overdose strike. If you or someone you care about is using stimulants or opioids, the next step is the same today as it was last week.

NA Fights Narcotic Addiction

Recovery paths vary and none of them require choosing just one. Options include:

• Medically supervised detox and inpatient or outpatient treatment
• Medication for opioid use disorder, including methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, where clinically appropriate
• NA meetings, including open, closed, virtual and Spanish-language formats
• 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for anyone in crisis

NA remains a free, confidential and easy-to-join way to fight addiction. Local chapters dot the landscape nationwide. To find one, simply browse our directory or call 800-934-1582(Sponsored) to speak with an expert about treatment options for narcotic addiction.