opioids

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Pennington County in dispute with state over opioid settlement amounts

BY: - August 28, 2023

Pennington County is arguing in court that the state should recalculate its national opioid settlement amounts to pay the county’s litigation costs. The national opioid settlement was the product of two channels of litigation: a multidistrict lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of opioids for their role in fueling the opioid epidemic, and state attorneys general […]

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Opioid treatment prescriptions quadruple in SD over 5 years

BY: - June 24, 2023

The number of patients prescribed an opioid dependency medication has nearly quadrupled in South Dakota in the last five years, according to data collected by the state’s prescription drug monitoring program. Melissa DeNoon, director of the program, presented the data to the South Dakota Board of Pharmacy at its meeting on Friday. The increase in […]

Marianne Sinisi, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, lost her 26-year-old son, Shawn, to an opioid overdose in 2018. She wants the opioid settlement dollars to be spent in ways that help spare other parents similar grief. (Nancy Andrews for KHN)

$50 billion in opioid settlement cash is on the way. We’re tracking how it’s spent.

BY: - April 3, 2023

More than $50 billion in settlement funds is being delivered to thousands of state and local governments from companies accused of flooding their communities with opioid painkillers that have left millions addicted or dead. That’s an enormous amount of money — double NASA’s budget and five times the revenue of an NBA season. But how […]

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How South Dakota will spend the first of $54 million from national opioid settlements

BY: - April 3, 2023

South Dakota received over $3.5 million from a national opioid lawsuit settlement in the last few months — the beginning of over $54 million delivered to the state in the next two decades. Now, the state, cities and counties are figuring out how to spend that money, focusing on opioid addiction treatment, prevention and education. […]

Close-up of someone holding naloxone nasal spray. (Courtesy of NIH/NIDA)

‘Why wait?’ SD businesses can purchase opioid overdose medication under new law

BY: - March 20, 2023

Bystanders who witness an opioid overdose in a public space, restaurant or workplace only have one option under existing state law: call 911 and wait for help to arrive. But waiting puts lives at risk, said Rep. Brian Mulder, R-Sioux Falls. Under current law, medications used to treat opioid overdoses in emergency situations — such […]

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As opioids overdose deaths keep rising, report urges lawmakers to develop new approaches

BY: - March 16, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers should view America’s staggering opioid crisis, including the rise of illicit fentanyl, through an “ecosystems” approach, argues a massive RAND Corporation report published Thursday. That means they should examine the gaps and interconnections among emergency response, data collection, education, treatment, housing and law enforcement, the report advises. The 600-page volume — which […]

Bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, are displayed before a press conference regarding a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016, in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

U.S. House GOP takes aim at fake pills containing deadly fentanyl sold on social media

BY: - January 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — On a June 2020 morning, Amy Neville entered her son’s bedroom to wake him for an orthodontist appointment. Fourteen-year-old Alex didn’t wake up. He died of fentanyl poisoning after taking a counterfeit pill he bought from someone he met on Snapchat, Neville told GOP lawmakers Wednesday during a roundtable discussion of the role […]