All posts tagged "Opioids"

The United States is knee-deep in what some experts call the opioid epidemic’s “fourth wave,” which is not only placing drug users at greater risk but is also complicating efforts to address the nation’s drug problem. These waves, according to a report out today from Millennium Health, began with the crisis in prescription opioid use, followed by a significant jump in heroin use, then an increase in the use of synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The latest wave involves using multiple substances at the same time, combining fentanyl mainly with either methamphetamine or cocaine, the report found. ......

Nearly a year after Montana began receiving millions of dollars to invest in efforts to combat the opioid crisis, much of that money remains untouched. Meanwhile, the state’s opioid overdose and death counts continue to rise. The money is part of the approximately $50 billion that states and local governments will receive nationwide in opioid settlement funds over nearly two decades. The payments come from more than a dozen companies that made, distributed, or sold prescription opioid painkillers that were sued for their role in fueling the overdose epidemic. Many places have begun deciding wh......

Money from legal settlements against opioid manufacturers, distributors and retailers will finally start to trickle out to Oklahoma cities and counties in 2024, almost four years after lawmakers set up a board to administer the funds.

More than 250 local governments told the Oklahoma Opioid Abatement Board they were interested in applying for the grants. The money is supposed to go toward treatment and recovery programs and opioid abuse education and prevention.

The Opioid Abatement Board has about $27 million available for local communities, school districts and public trusts. The Legislature controls another $37.6 million sitting in the Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Fund. Additional funds are expected in coming years since some settlements call for multi-year payouts. ...

NEW YORK — A young woman accused of selling the fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills that killed Robert De Niro’s teenage grandson warned an undercover cop not to take “more than one at a time” before her arrest because, she said, her friend had “just died,” authorities revealed after she appeared in court Friday. Wearing a black T-shirt and white sneakers with the laces taken out, Sofia Haley Marks, 20, of Manhattan, was held without bail at Manhattan federal court a day after her arrest on charges alleging she dispensed the pills that caused Leandro De Niro Rodriguez’s overdose death. The pet......

NEW YORK — Robert De Niro’s grandson Leandro De Niro Rodriguez died of a fentanyl overdose after buying laced pills, according to his mother. Drena De Niro, the adopted daughter of the actor and his first wife, Diahnne Abbott, announced De Niro Rodriguez, 19, had died Monday, a day after his body was found at an apartment in the Financial District. Police sources and a doorman told the Daily News that cocaine and prescription pills were found strewn around the short-term rental. Investigators are now trying to determine if any of those drugs were spiked with fentanyl and if others are in dange......

NEW YORK — The “Green Book” actor whose body was dumped on a Bronx sidewalk died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl and cocaine, a city Medical Examiner autopsy has determined. Frank Vallelonga Jr.’s corpse was found at 3:50 a.m. on Nov. 28 on Oak Point Avenue, an industrial street in Hunts Point. Police at the time suspected 60-year-old Vallelonga, whose identity was not immediately known because he had no identification on him, died of an overdose. A medical examiner spokesman on Monday said Vallelonga died accidentally from “acute intoxication due to combined effects of fentanyl and coca......