overdose

Police departments are toning down the law enforcement, and offering drug users recovery help instead. But convincing drug users to accept the help is not easy.

Public health officials are adopting a law-enforcement tool, the mass spectrometer, to instantly identify potentially deadly levels of opioids in local drug supplies.

The National Sheriffs' Association has published a detailed guide to jail-based medication-assisted treatment. States hardest hit by opioids are moving fastest to get inmates the help needed to quit.

To reduce opioid overdose deaths, North Carolina lawmakers want to crack down on the people who distribute them.

Within days of an OD from opioids or other drugs, users in Huntington, W.Va., are visited by a quick-response team at home, the hospital or in jail. Reversing an OD is just recovery's first step.

College campuses are growing increasingly concerned about how to keep students safe amid a national opioid crisis. Some schools provide free and easy access to drugs that can reverse an overdose.

In 2017, more than 5,500 North Carolinians went to the emergency room for an opioid overdose.

Prosecutors in 20 states are using old laws to file homicide charges to hold family and friends accountable in opioid-related deaths. The penalty is steep and experts debate its effectiveness.

The U.S. surgeon general has recommended that naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug, be widely available to consumers. But there are several barriers to consumers' ability to acquire it.