Latest Opioids News

Lifesaving fentanyl test strips still illegal in some states under '70s-era war on drugs law

Jun. 08, 2023 12:08 PM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At Cleveland's Urban Kutz Barbershop, customers can flip through magazines as they wait, or help themselves to drug screening tests left out in a box on a table with a somber message: “Your drugs could contain fentanyl. Please take free test strips.” Owner...

A look at what passed and failed in the '23 session

Jun. 06, 2023 22:09 PM EDT

MONTGOMERY, Ala, (AP) — Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday concluded the 2023 legislative session. Here is a look at some of the major bills introduced this year and what passed and what failed. WHAT PASSED: REDUCED SALES TAX ON FOOD Alabama lawmakers...

Defense lawyers ask judge to rule in their favor in lawsuit involving fatal police shooting

Jun. 06, 2023 20:04 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Attorneys for Delaware’s largest county and three police officers asked a federal judge on Tuesday to rule in their favor in a lawsuit stemming from a fatal police shooting in 2021. The family of Lymond Moses is suing New Castle County and officers Roberto...

Police: Fentanyl found in Waikiki hotel room, 2 men dead after suspected mass overdose

Jun. 06, 2023 14:53 PM EDT

HONOLULU (AP) — Two people died in what officials believe was a mass fentanyl overdose over the weekend involving five people in a hotel room in the Hawaii tourist mecca of Waikiki. Emergency responders were called to the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort on Sunday morning and...

Maker of anti-addiction drug Suboxone reaches $102.5 million settlement over antitrust claims

Jun. 02, 2023 16:05 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The company that makes the opioid addiction treatment drug Suboxone has agreed to pay $102.5 million to 41 states and the District of Columbia to settle claims that the company engaged in anticompetitive practices, it announced Friday. The agreement with...

California advances fentanyl bills focused on prevention, increased penalties

May. 31, 2023 21:53 PM EDT

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

May. 30, 2023 19:42 PM EDT

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

May. 30, 2023 19:16 PM EDT

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

May. 30, 2023 19:03 PM EDT

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

May. 26, 2023 16:41 PM EDT

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...