Commentary PENN HILLS, Pennsylvania—When the Penn Hills police and paramedics arrived at the modest suburban Pittsburgh home in the 8100 block of Chaske Street on Jan. 14, they found the father of 7-month-old Zhuri Bogle desperately performing CPR on his infant daughter. It was 6:44 a.m., and with the exception of a few flurries swirling…

Commentary While we will finally be looking at the COVID-19 pandemic in the rear-view mirror in 2023, we still have the consequences of the pandemic and government responses to it to deal with. North America had already been struggling to deal with the growth in opioid addiction prior to 2021. The increase in addiction rates…

Strung out on drugs half her life, Brandi Edwards, 29, said the longest she held a job before getting sober four years ago was “about two and a half months.” “I worked at an AT&T call center, a day-care center for a month, fast food places, but I had to take drugs to get out…

Oklahoma has reached a $250 million settlement with AmerisourceBergen Corp, Cardinal Health Inc., and McKesson Corp to resolve allegations the drug distributors contributed to the opioid epidemic in the state, Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor said on Monday. O’Connor said Oklahoma recovered more money from the distributors than the state would have received if it…

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) is encouraging Australia’s healthcare professionals to reconsider opioid treatment as it is currently administered. At least one prescription for opioids is dispensed to more than three million people annually, according to 2016-2017 statistics collected by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. However, although opioids are…

James Pierre, a 52-year-old doctor from Houston, Texas, was convicted on March 25 for illegally prescribing over one million pills of hydrocodone, an opioid pain medication. “Pierre was convicted of one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances and seven counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances,” the justice department said…

The judge overseeing Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy on Wednesday approved a $6 billion opioid settlement funded by its Sackler family owners, overruling objections from the Department of Justice and 20 states that opposed the deal. Under the settlement, the Sacklers would pay between $5.5 billion and $6 billion to a trust that will be used to…

The U.S. health regulator on Wednesday warned patients and prescribers about the risk of potential dental problems arising from the use of buprenorphine medicines to treat opioid addiction and pain. The Food and Drug Administration said the opioid addiction treatment has been reported to cause tooth decay, infection, and, in some cases, total tooth loss…

New York City opened two supervised injection sites in Manhattan on Tuesday to provide illicit drug users and addicts with a so-called safe and controlled environment for substance abuse, making these the first government-sanctioned spaces for such a purpose in the United States. Mayor Bill de Blasio has been pushing for opening such centers since…

Washington state’s attorney general on Monday argued in court that three large drug distributors’ excessive shipments of pain pills helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic, calling it the “worst man-made public health crisis in history,” as the state sought to recoup an estimated $95 billion. The argument came at the start of a trial in…