Latest Opioids News
California advances fentanyl bills focused on prevention, increased penalties
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers have advanced more than a dozen bills aiming to address the fentanyl crisis, including some that would impose harsher prison sentences for dealers, ahead of a critical deadline this week. Legislators in the Assembly and Senate debated...
Suspect's dislike for drugs, homelessness may have led to shootings that killed 4 in metro Phoenix
PHOENIX (AP) — A man's anger over drug abuse drove him to fatally shoot four men and wound a woman in a 12-hour crime spree in metro Phoenix, authorities said. Iren Byers, 20, was taken into custody Sunday on suspicion of four counts of first-degree murder and one count of...
Ruling clears way for Purdue Pharma to settle opioid claims, protects Sacklers from lawsuits
A federal appeals court cleared the way for the maker of OxyContin to settle thousands of legal claims tied to the opioid epidemic while shielding the wealthy owners of Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, from future lawsuits. Under the plan approved Tuesday by the 2nd U.S. Circuit...
US sanctions Chinese, Mexican companies over pill making machinery
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The United States Treasury sanctioned more than a dozen people and businesses in China and Mexico Tuesday that allegedly helped provide machines used to make counterfeit prescription drugs in the latest efforts to confront trafficking of the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl. ...
After yearslong delay, DEA revokes license of drug distributor over opioid crisis failures
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration stripped one of the nation's largest drug distributors of its license to sell highly addictive painkillers Friday after determining it failed to flag thousands of suspicious orders at the height of the opioid crisis. The action against Morris...
Wisconsin lawmaker says his bar where overdose victims bought drugs isn't 'bad establishment'
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Police in Wisconsin say the fentanyl-laced drugs that killed one person and caused three more to overdose in a village north of Milwaukee were bought at a state lawmaker's tavern that has been the subject of multiple calls to police in recent years. Republican...
Takeaways of AP report on DEA probe of drug distributor accused of fueling opioid epidemic
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed one of the nation’s largest wholesale drug distributors to keep shipping addictive painkillers for nearly four years despite a judge’s recommendation to strip its license for turning a blind eye to thousands of...
Rapper Fetty Wap sentenced to 6 years in prison for drug-trafficking scheme
CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — As friends and family looked on, rapper Fetty Wap on Wednesday apologized for his actions and said he was “exactly where I'm supposed to be,” before a judge sentenced him to six years in federal prison for his role in a New York-based drug-trafficking scheme. ...
Protesters cut short questioning of San Francisco mayor over drug crisis
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Protesters cut short a rare outdoor meeting of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Tuesday where the board president had planned to question Mayor London Breed on her administration's response to the crisis of brazen open-air drug dealing. Board President...
New nasal spray to reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses gets FDA approval
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators on Monday approved a new easy-to-use version of a medication to reverse overdoses caused by fentanyl and other opioids driving the nation’s drug crisis. Opvee is similar to naloxone, the life-saving drug that has been used for decades to...
