overdoses

Forsyth County health officials have added a vending machine at the county detention center that offers the overdose-reversing drug Narcan (Naloxone).

After 17 overdoses — including four deaths — this spring, Indigenous leaders in Montana and surrounding states look for ways to stop the fentanyl crisis and provide more treatment and care.

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.

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told NPR the U.S. has to do more to help people using illegal drugs survive. "If we want to keep people alive we've got to try everything the evidence says might work."

The nation's poison control centers saw a 245% jump in reported exposure cases from July to August as more people take the anti-parasite drug that some falsely claim treats COVID-19.

Scott Simon notes the 30 percent increase of drug overdose deaths in the U.S. during the first year of the pandemic.

The CDC says hospitals saw a lot more emergency cases involving drug overdoses, as well as mental health crises and suicide attempts. Many emergency departments weren't ready.

The number of unintentional opioid overdose deaths in North Carolina has dropped for the first time in five years.