Latest Opioids News

A growing number of Oregon cities vote to ban psychedelic mushroom compound psilocybin

Nov. 22, 2024 15:12 PM EST

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Drug reform advocates hailed Oregon as a progressive leader when it became the first in the nation to legalize the therapeutic use of psilocybin, the compound found in psychedelic mushrooms. But four years later, voters in a growing list of its cities have...

Faulty fentanyl tests spurred NYC’s push to ban mail on Rikers Island

Nov. 20, 2024 17:57 PM EST

NEW YORK (AP) — In 2022, New York City’s jails commissioner, Louis Molina, issued a dire warning to local lawmakers: fentanyl was pouring into Rikers Island through the mail, he said, spurring an overdose crisis among the jail's detainees and putting guards at risk. As evidence...

Democratic Arizona governor says she'll work with Trump on border security if it won't harm families

Nov. 18, 2024 20:34 PM EST

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Monday she is willing to work with President-elect Donald Trump’s new administration on border security issues like stopping fentanyl trafficking, but not in areas that she said could harm Arizona families such as mass deportation. ...

Canadian Mounties bust massive drug 'super lab' linked to transnational organized crime

Oct. 31, 2024 18:46 PM EDT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Canadian police dismantled what they said Thursday is the largest, most sophisticated illicit drug “super lab” in the country. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police believe organized crime ran the operation where there was mass-production and...

US imposes sanctions on top members of the armed wing of a Mexican fentanyl-trafficking cartel

Oct. 31, 2024 11:05 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Thursday imposed sanctions on senior members of the armed wing of a Mexican drug cartel that operates on border territories in and around Chihuahua, Mexico. Five Mexican citizens and two companies linked to La Linea, a violent Mexico-based drug...

Owner of NYC day care where toddler fatally ingested fentanyl pleads guilty to federal charges

Oct. 29, 2024 18:09 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who owned a New York City day care center where a toddler died after ingesting fentanyl pleaded guilty to federal drug charges Tuesday. More than a year after the September 2023 death of 22-month-old Nicholas Dominici, Grei Mendez entered the guilty plea in...

Walmart reaches settlement deal for shareholder lawsuits over its handling of opioids

Oct. 18, 2024 18:35 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Friday it has reached a proposed settlement pact related to three lawsuits filed by shareholders on behalf of the company over the handling of prescription opioids. According to the terms of the settlement that were disclosed in a regulatory filing,...

California man accused of using drone to deliver fentanyl and other drugs

Oct. 16, 2024 20:51 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California man was arrested Wednesday after federal prosecutors say he used a drone to deliver fentanyl and other drugs to customers, including one who died of a fentanyl overdose. Christopher Patrick Laney, 34, of Lancaster, California, was arrested...

Man gets a 45-year prison sentence in the fentanyl death of a toddler at a NYC daycare

Oct. 16, 2024 16:15 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who hid a stash of fentanyl beneath the floorboards of a Bronx daycare center was sentenced to 45 years in prison Wednesday in connection with a toddler's fatal opioid overdose. Felix Herrera-Garcia previously pleaded guilty to drug charges and causing bodily...

Puerto Rico police investigate 8 deaths and about two dozen suspected fentanyl overdoses in one town

Oct. 15, 2024 14:54 PM EDT

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At least eight people have died in a town on Puerto Rico’s north coast in recent days after around two dozen suffered from suspected overdoses linked to drugs likely contaminated with fentanyl, police said Tuesday. The eighth victim was a 26-year-old...