An Ohio county is considering opening a second morgue to accommodate the high number of drug overdose deaths at the beginning of February, according to an ABC News report.

A fatal new drug combination of heroin cut with synthetic fentanyl has emerged that may be too dangerous to even touch, a police department in Louisiana is warning the public, according to CBS News.

Chances are, you know someone in your life who suffers from chronic pain. Workplace injuries, aging, car accidents, disease, and many other common events can trigger a lifetime of pain for those afflicted. However, the sheer scale of the problem is staggering.

A steering committee for the United States and Canada's Joint Action Plan on Opioids met Jan. 31, creating working groups for key challenges faced by both countries, according to the White House.

A majority of physicians who prescribe opioids do so within recommended parameters, suggesting that strategies to deal with opioid abuse should focus on improving the management of complex pain patients and reducing additional chronic conditions that pain patients suffer from, according to a study published in The BMJ.

States that expanded Medicaid had fewer opioid overdose deaths, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

A program at Houston Methodist Hospital emphasizing the use of over-the-counter medication to manage patients' pain after surgery has helped the hospital reduce opioid prescriptions from 87 percent to about 10 percent, according to a study published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.

Philadelphia will begin monitoring physicians' prescribing patterns to identify and intervene with those who overprescribe opioids, reports WHYY, Philadelphia's public media organization.

Hospitals can reduce the number of opioids prescribed to patients by lowering default prescription volumes in the EHR, suggest the findings of a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

A fraction of adolescents and young adults who survive opioid overdoses receive timely addiction treatment to prevent future opioid abuse, a study published in JAMA Pediatrics found.

A recent survey found that opioid or other drug abuse was one of the most serious problems in rural communities, according to a study published Jan. 8 in JAMA Network Open. 

Acetaminophen-hydrocodone was the opioid most commonly prescribed at discharge from emergency departments from 2012 to 2017, according to a new CDC report.

Opioid prescriptions in Minnesota have dropped significantly over the last few years, but the state still intends to implement penalties against certain physicians that overprescribe painkillers, the Minnesota Department of Human Services announced Jan 3. 

Amid a national opioid crisis, some hospitals have changed how they administer pain medication, a move some say can leave sickle cell patients suffering, according to NPR. 

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report outlining a framework to develop acute pain prescribing plans Dec. 19.

Close to a third of opioid poisoning cases in the U.S. involve children, a study published in Clinical Toxicology shows.

U.S. hospital spending on infants exposed to opioids rose by more than $250 million over four years, according to a study published Dec. 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Alphabet's life sciences arm Verily is seeking funding to expand its OneFifteen opioid addiction and recovery campus, launched earlier this year in partnership with Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health and Kettering Health Network, the Dayton Daily News reports.

The MX908 mass spectrometer device, which was originally marketed by portable chemical analysis startup 908 Devices as a counterterrorism tool, is now being used by the Boston Public Health Commission to combat the opioid crisis, NPR reports.

An Oklahoma judge lowered the amount Johnson & Johnson has to pay the state for its role in the opioid crisis by $107 million, according to The Washington Post.