opioid addiction

Like many employers, Belden couldn't find enough workers for its Indiana factory. So it started a first-of-its-kind program which pays for drug treatment to job applicants failing drug tests.

In Vancouver, drug users run their own safe injection sites. Public health officials are taking note of how they operate — peers helping each other stay alive in a judgment-free zone.

More than a dozen cities from San Francisco to New York are trying to open safe injection sites for heroin users. But worries about a crackdown from the Justice Department have local leaders on edge.

States are passing laws that limit a doctor's ability to prescribe opioids. Doctors and patients alike are wrestling with what that means in cases of chronic pain

Nationally, the economic toll of the opioid crisis is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. For families of addicts, the losses can include their life savings, peace of mind and a sense of hope.

Opioid prescriptions in one of the busiest emergency rooms in the U.S dropped 58 percent in the first year of an unusual program to help stem the opioid epidemic. More hospitals are copying the model.