Addiction

The new programs to treat drug users will look different across Oregon counties as law enforcement officials and outreach providers map out local strategies with limited resources.

The vending machines hold harm-reduction supplies such as strips to test for fentanyl, nasal naloxone, pouches to deactivate medications, and tests to detect the dangerous combination of fentanyl and xylazine.

Research indicates that women tend to become dependent on substances, including fentanyl, more quickly, and take longer to seek help due to gender roles. Fentanyl use has skyrocketed in recent years, even among pregnant women. In the Tenderloin district of the San Francisco, Bay Area, reporter Dayanna Monroy talks to pregnant women who struggle with addiction.

In Sacramento, healthcare providers, researchers, and youth collaborate to tackle local usage and support teenagers struggling with nicotine addiction.

City officials never mentioned the ongoing failures to address root causes driving the crisis in the Tenderloin, or the Department of Public Health’s own assessment that the Latinx community “has been disproportionately harmed by racist drug policies.”

The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic led to a rise in fatal overdoses among the tens of thousands of Indigenous Maya living in the Bay Area.

A reporter shares how she investigated the unregulated state of the kratom industry and the hundreds who have died while taking the Southeast Asian herb.

Language barriers may be hindering crucial warnings over the dangers of fentanyl for some 70,000 Indigenous Maya-speaking people.

A trauma-informed approach proves essential for one reporter's deep dive into the barriers that prevented patients from accessing medication for opioid use disorder.

Reporters built a first-of-its-kind database of deaths, tested potent products and traveled across Florida.