Karen Butcher thought that after years of struggling with drug addictions, her son, Matthew was finally in a good place. Then the pandemic hit and on May 25, 2020, just weeks after his 31st birthday, Matthew was discovered by his girlfriend, dead from an overdose. In 2018 and 2019, Scott County recorded 17 deaths each year due to overdose, but …

An undercover sting operation has led to the discovery of hundreds of counterfeit drugs in Marion County, and authorities are warning the public that more deadly pills are being distributed in the area. The 12th Judicial Drug Task Force (DTF) announced Wednesday night that the drugs found were made to look like 30 mg oxycodone pills. Instead, agents say the …

Growing drug abuse and the number of overdoses are taking a toll on the people, families and communities in the Mankato region. The victims of drug abuse see their families destroyed, and the community often pays the price in the resulting crime: dangerous car chases, burglary, robbery, gun violence and child abuse. A recent in-depth report published in last Sunday’s …

Experts said addiction is a disease of isolation. COVID-19 further complicated that. At the beginning of 2020, things were looking better in terms of Knox County’s ongoing overdose epidemic. There were plans for The Gateway, a community recovery center in Knoxville. The county’s All4Knox plan was in its final planning stages. For the first time in years, overdoses had actually declined. “Prior to this …

Earlier this month, the body of a young man came through the city Medical Examiner’s Office: another victim of a fatal overdose amid the COVID-19 pandemic, during which drug deaths have reached record levels in Philadelphia. The man had been found with a few pills in his pocket; his parents told investigators that they had known him to only seek …

City health officials warned that the deadly drug fentanyl is partly responsible for a large increase in overdose deaths in 2020 that continues into 2021, and is not limited to heroin use. Philadelphia health officials are warning that, as overdose deaths again increased in 2020, that one of the deadliest components of the overdose epidemic, fentanyl, is being infused with …

More than 83,000 drug overdose deaths occurred during the 12 months ending in May 2020, the most ever recorded during a one-year period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists think the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated an already alarming trend in overdose fatalities.  Overdose deaths in the United States have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily driven …

More than 330,000 Americans have died from COVID-19—with nearly 5,000 of those deaths in Maricopa County. The pandemic is also being blamed for a frightening rise in drug overdoses. According to a Dec. 18 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention press release, new data suggests “an acceleration of overdose deaths during the pandemic.” According to the CDC, over 81,000 drug …

The U.S. is seeing its worst COVID-19 surge of the year. Yet as the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths all rise, the country continues to deal with a concurrent epidemic affecting Americans: A drug overdose epidemic driven by illicit fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine. AMA Immediate Past President Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA, recently joined the National Association of Attorneys …

The isolation of the coronavirus pandemic had seriously begun to take its toll on Alexander Joubert by the time his 21st birthday came around in May. The skate parks were closed. He missed his friends. And the in-person family counseling he’d started just months earlier now consisted of conversations through a computer screen. So, to lift his spirits, his parents …