opioids

Three major drug distributors and the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have agreed to a $26 billion settlement with states to resolve thousands of lawsuits over the country’s opioid crisis, officials announced Wednesday. The four companies — which also include Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson — were accused by states, cities and counties of playing a significant role in funneling a…

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” that she’s hopeful that the spike in drug overdoses will not be lasting. 

Doctors say they’re facing increasing threats of violence for refusing to prescribe opioids or trying to wean patients off the addictive painkillers.

Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of the painkiller Oxycontin, pleaded guilty to charges for its role in the opioid crisis. 

Purdue Pharma says its guilty plea over its role in the opioid crisis is “an essential step to preserve billions of dollars” for the settlement it is pursuing in bankruptcy court

James Caruso walked out of prison this summer after spending 18 years in the Florida Department of Corrections.

Omnicare Inc., a subsidiary of CVS Health and a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, agreed to pay a $15.3 million penalty to resolve allegations that it allowed opioids to be dispensed without prescriptions, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced Wednesday. The Cincinnati-based Omnicare operates non-public “closed door” pharmacies that deliver controlled substances to nursing homes and other…

Constitution Health Plaza, expected to be the first location in the United States for a supervised injection site, said they have canceled plans to allow for the Safehouse facility.

Federal prosecutors in Vermont say a health information technology company will pay $145 million to resolve criminal and civil charges that it helped set up an electronic health records system that encouraged physicians to prescribe opioids to people who might not need them

The founder and former top employees of a pharmaceutical company are being sentenced in a bribery scheme that prosecutors say helped fuel the national opioid epidemic. Starting Monday, seven people who worked for Insys Therapeutics will appear in Boston federal court for their sentencing. The case against company founder John Kapoor and his associates was considered the first to hold...

Owners of electric vehicles in a number of states will start seeing fees to pay for road repairs in the new year. At least eight states will begin charging new or higher registration fees Wednesday for electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids. The new fees mean that, for the first time, a majority of states will assess special fees on gas-free...

Major League Baseball will start testing for opioids and cocaine. But only players who do not cooperate with their treatment plans will be subject to discipline. Marijuana will be removed from the list of drugs of abuse and will be treated the same as alcohol as part of changes to the joint drug agreement between MLB and the players’ association....

Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association agreed to begin testing for opioids, cocaine, fentanyl and synthetic THC. They will also remove marijuana from the list of drugs of abuse.

A South Jersey doctor is accused of supplying more than a million doses of opioids to multiple patients over the course of three years, according to the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office. At least one of those patients overdosed and died. Former Bordentown physician Morris “Moishe” Starkman of Cinnaminson was taken into police custody last month and charged with eight...

Players who test positive for opioids would enter treatment and not be suspended under the change to Major League Baseball’s drug agreement being negotiated by management and the players’ association, according to union head Tony Clark. Talks to add testing for opioids began following the death this year of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs. Players have been tested...

Opioid prescriptions remain common for teens and young adults, a new study finds. NBC News reported that, from 2005 to 2015, nearly 15 percent of teens and young adults received an opioid prescription during an emergency room visit, according to the study, published Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics. That’s compared with 3 percent among those who were seen in an...

The Drug Enforcement Administration has seized around $150 million worth of opioids from two men in New Jersey, the agency said.

More than a dozen people were charged with illegally prescribing opioids to patients in the Philadelphia region who didn’t need the drugs in exchange for cash, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.

Federal officials have a new tool to battle the opioid crisis: data. The Office of National Drug Control Policy’s “High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area” program is using a web portal called the “OD Map” to track overdoses caused by opioids in real time. The program will help the agency target high-problem areas with resources and track the sources of...