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 …

Two years after declaring a state of emergency over fentanyl, one Washington county now reports the kind of numbers reflecting the rest of the country. For anyone tracking whether the response to opioid addiction is working, Whatcom County offers a useful test case, because the county published what it did and added what happened next. …

Naloxone reverses opioid overdose. It works in minutes, requires no medical training, and costs a fraction of an ambulance ride. Yet in a new analysis of more than 3,000 people in rural areas affected by opioid addiction, only 36% had it. Dr. P. Quincy Moore headed a team based at the Permanente Medical Group in …

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 …

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, …

San Francisco overdose deaths fell 27% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year, the city’s Department of Public Health announced at a press conference in mid-July. The city recorded 262 overdose deaths from January through June. For people who use drugs in San Francisco and for the families around …

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 …

Opioid settlement dollars have now reached schools and classrooms in northwest Alabama. Florence’s city council voted unanimously to approve Mayor Ron Tyler’s resolution directing a portion of the city’s opioid settlement funds toward a school-based prevention program. The vote gives Florence City Schools $300,000 over three years to address opioid addiction before students encounter it. …

A substance sold legally in gas stations across much of the country is now explicitly prohibited for every soldier in the U.S. Army. The policy does something notable for anyone tracking opioid addiction in the military. The kratom ban now routes soldiers toward clinical evaluation rather than treating the matter as a disciplinary question alone. …

Utah has confirmed that medetomidine, a veterinary sedative, is present in its illicit drug supply. The state’s task forces for opioids and fentanyl zeroed in and identified the substance that can complicate treatment and recovery efforts via naloxone. While this news is alarming, Utah residents do have options. The Beehive State offers a wide range …