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Would a $10 billion Purdue settlement reach towns affected by the opioid crisis?

Aug 28, 2019
A proposed settlement would reportedly see the OxyContin maker declaring bankruptcy and paying big. Is that enough for people on the ground?
A homemade sign says "Think drugs gets you high give God a try," on a front lawn in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. The town in Wise County has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.
Julia Rendleman/Marketplace

Johnson & Johnson hit with $572 million opioid ruling — what happens now?

Johnson & Johnson is appealing the decision, which could be the first of many legal battles.
A judge has ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $572 million in connection with the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.
Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Trump plans to fight opioid epidemic online, in ads

Mar 19, 2018
Congressional hearings on more than a dozen opioid bills start on Wednesday. Today President Donald Trump unveiled his plan to tackle the epidemic … including a multimillion dollar media blitz that he promises will keep kids from getting hooked on prescription painkillers and heroin. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Philadelphia makes an economic case for safe injection sites

Feb 15, 2018
The facilities could save at least $2 million a year by reducing expensive ambulance rides, emergency room trips and hospital visits, the city says.
A man uses heroin under a bridge where he lives with other addicts in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, which has become a hub for heroin use.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to stop marketing opioids to doctors

Purdue’s promotions exaggerated the drug’s safety and risks of addiction, leaning heavily on one sentence used by sales reps to market the drug to doctors.
The prescription medicine OxyContin is displayed Aug. 21, 2001 at a Walgreens drugstore.
Darren McCollester/Getty Images

A drugmaker used “The Wizard of Oz” to sell OxyContin

Dec 15, 2017
In an internal sales document, Purdue told sales reps to “follow the yellow brick road” and get doctors to prescribe the opioid.
Publicity photo from the 1939 adaptation for "The Wizard of Oz," which inspired a pharmaceutical sales document.
CBS via Wikimedia Commons

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How one sentence helped set off the opioid crisis

Dec 13, 2017
Recently unsealed documents shed light on how the maker of OxyContin seems to have relied more on focus groups than on scientific studies to create an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

Trump declares opioid epidemic a public health crisis but doesn’t add any additional funds

Oct 26, 2017
President Donald Trump has long promised to declare the opioid crisis in America a national emergency, freeing up more federal resources to fight the epidemic. Today turned out to the be the day. At the White House this afternoon, the president directed acting Health Secretary Eric Hargan to declare a public health emergency under the […]

President Trump plans to declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. What would that do?

Oct 20, 2017
Next week, President Donald Trump has said he plans to officially declare the opioid epidemic a national emergency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose every day. States were given nearly $500 million in additional funding for opioid addiction treatment earlier this year – so what would […]