opioids

Walmart offers to pay $3.1 billion to settle opioid lawsuits

4:10pm November 15, 2022

by The Associated Press

The retail giant becomes the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of opioids sold at its pharmacies.

The federal government's new opioid prescribing guidelines may help doctors better manage patients with chronic pain who need consistent doses of pain medicines. For example, one patient takes tramadol regularly for serious pain caused by osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease.

Health & Safety

CDC issues new opioid prescribing guidance, giving doctors more leeway to treat pain

7:37pm November 03, 2022

The updated recommendations seek to course correct after guidelines from 2016 were criticized for harshly limiting access to needed pain medication.

Drugs

Overdose-reversing drug now available from free vending machine in Forsyth

6:05pm August 26, 2022

by Paul Garber

Forsyth County health officials have added a vending machine at the county detention center that offers the overdose-reversing drug Narcan (Naloxone).

Forsyth County seeks public input for opioid funds

4:22pm July 27, 2022

by Keri Brown

Local governments across North Carolina are starting to see the first payments from a national multi-billion dollar

North Carolina is adding funding to help those battling opioid addiction

11:11am June 15, 2022

by Neal Charnoff

North Carolina is putting more funding toward expanding treatment for those battling opioid addiction.

Drugs

50 faith-based organizations petition for effective drug treatment funding

4:10pm June 06, 2022

by David Ford

As overdose deaths in North Carolina

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Health & Safety

CDC weighs new opioid prescribing guidelines amid controversy over old ones

11:01am April 09, 2022

by Will Stone

Many blame the agency's earlier guidance for suffering and even suicide risk among chronic pain patients. Critics say the updated advice may not fix the problem.

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A protester gathers containers that look like OxyContin bottles at an anti-opioid demonstration in front of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, D.C., in 2019.

Corporate opioid payouts now being finalized would top $32 billion

3:13pm February 23, 2022

by Brian Mann

Companies at the center of the deadly prescription opioid epidemic are close to deals that would cap their liability while funding drug treatment and recovery programs.

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Health & Safety

Philanthropic organization contributes $50 million for NC fight against opioid abuse

3:08pm November 16, 2021

by Paul Garber

A nonprofit is investing $120 million in North Carolina and four other states to help address the opioid epidemic.

CVS Pharmacist Raphael Lynne (left), D., MBA, and Stephanie Garcia, a Pharmacy tech., check the medication disposal box where people can drop off their expired, unused or unwanted medications for safe disposal.

National

A landmark opioid trial puts spotlight on pharmacy chains CVS, Walmart and Walgreens

8:00am October 04, 2021

by Brian Mann

The country's biggest name-brand pharmacy chains face a high-profile civil trial beginning Monday in Cleveland, Ohio over their role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic.