Opioid Overdoses

Ohio Governor John Kasich has announced new rules for monitoring the prescribing of opioid painkillers. 

Medical marijuana appears to have put a dent in the opioid abuse epidemic, according to two studies published Monday.

The research suggests that some people turn to marijuana as a way to treat their pain, and by so doing, avoid more dangerous addictive drugs. The findings are the latest to lend support to the idea that some people are willing to substitute marijuana for opioids and other prescription drugs.

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.

President Trump outlined a wide-ranging plan to combat the opioid epidemic on Monday, including an ad campaign to discourage drug use, expand addiction treatment and pursue a get-tough approach to law enforcement.

"Whether you are a dealer or doctor or trafficker or a manufacturer, if you break the law and illegally peddle these deadly poisons, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will hold you accountable," Trump told an audience in Manchester, N.H.

"Failure is not an option," he added. "Addiction is not our future."

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has served subpoenas on Dublin-based Cardinal Health and another opioid distributor as part of a multi-state investigation into their marketing and sales practices. 

Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend's bathroom looking down at the sink.

"I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back," Ohlman recalls. She doesn't remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor.

"But I remember being pissed because I could still get up, you know?"

She wanted to be dead, she says, glancing down. A wisp of straight brown hair slips from behind an ear across her thin face.

Millions of Americans use opioids to relieve pain. But many also struggle with addiction.

This week, a report in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, found that nonopioid painkillers — like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — were as effective as opioids at treating chronic back, hip and knee pain, and with fewer side effects.

There's more bad news about the nation's devastating opioid epidemic.

In just one year, overdoses from opioids jumped by about 30 percent, according to a report released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Ohio Board of Pharmacy says the number of painkiller prescriptions continues to decline. 

Records obtained by the Associated Press show drug distributors are pushing back on stricter regulations in Ohio, calling them a patchwork approach that could lead to confusion and uncertainty. 

Ohio Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Mike DeWine has filed a new lawsuit against four major drug distributors, including Dublin-based Cardinal Health, for their alleged roles in the opioid crisis.

Franklin County and Columbus Public Health officials plan to distribute bags that deactivate prescription drugs as part of the fight against the opioid epidemic. 

Kentucky's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Dublin-based Cardinal Health, which has been linked to an opioid pipeline. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Ohio’s drug overdose death rate rose 39 percent between mid-2016 and mid-2017 — the third-largest increase of any state.

The opioid epidemic has cost the U.S. more than a trillion dollars since 2001, according to a new study, and may exceed another $500 billion over the next three years.

More than three months after President Trump declared the nation's opioid crisis a public health emergency, activists and health care providers say they're still waiting for some other action.

The Trump administration quietly renewed the declaration recently. But it has given no signs it's developing a comprehensive strategy to address an epidemic that claims more than 115 lives every day. The president now says that to combat opioids, he's focused on enforcement, not treatment.

The Ohio Attorney General's office says investigations of human trafficking cases rose last year to the highest level since the state began keeping track of those numbers in 2013. 

The number of transplants using organs from people who fatally overdosed on drugs is rising in central Ohio and the nation. 

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

Accidental deaths in the United States rose significantly in 2016, becoming the third-leading cause of fatalities for the first time in more than a century – a trend fueled by the steep rise in opioid overdoses, the National Safety Council reports.

Accidents — defined by the council as unintentional, preventable injuries — claimed a record 161,374 lives in 2016, a 10 percent increase over 2015. They include motor vehicle crashes, falls, drowning, choking and poisoning, a category that encompasses accidental overdoses.