Coroner: Drug Overdose Killed Kirkersville Police Chief

Kirkersville Mayor Terry Ashcraft said Friday that police chief James Hughes has died. 

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy says a Clark County nurse practitioner accused of illegally issuing prescriptions for controlled substances has been indicted on drug trafficking charges. 

A state auditor's report looking at opioids' impact on Ohio's Medicaid program shows the number of recipients with an opioid-related diagnosis rose by 430 percent from 2010 to 2016. 

The fact that rural, economically disadvantaged parts of the country broke heavily for the Republican candidate in the 2016 election is well known. But Medicare data indicate that voters in areas that went for Trump weren't just hurting economically — many of them were receiving prescriptions for opioid painkillers.

The Franklin County Coroner's Office has issued a warning after a recent surge in drug overdose deaths. 

Prince had an extremely high level of a powerful synthetic opioid in his body at the time of his death at his home in Minnesota in April 2016, according to a toxicology report obtained by The Associated Press.

The confidential toxicology information was reported less than a week after the Carver County Attorney Mark Metz stated that the death investigation remains active. Metz is still deciding whether to charge someone with a crime.

Columbus Public Health has issued a community advisory about an increase in cocaine and fentanyl-related overdose deaths. 

The City of Columbus and Franklin County are teaming up to provide funding for a struggling program providing clean syringes and other services for drug users. 

It's been a decade since the financial crisis drove up the unemployment rate in the U.S. and forced people in the prime of their careers to give up looking for work.

Even today, as employers add jobs at a furious pace, the workforce participation rate still hasn't recovered. And now researchers think they know one reason why: the opioid crisis.