Oakland, Calif.-based Highland Hospital is among a small number of U.S. emergency departments that give patients withdrawal medicine, an effort to change a healthcare system that often fails to give on-demand addiction treatment, The New York Times reports.

Drug overdose deaths are currently the leading cause of injury death in the U.S.

Black patients receiving opioids are more likely than white patients to be tested for illicit drug use to have their opioid prescriptions cut if they test positive, according to a study published in Science Daily.

President Donald Trump called on the Senate Aug. 20 to quickly draft and pass a bill to prevent overseas drug traffickers from shipping synthetic opioids via the U.S. Postal Service, according to The Washington Post. 

Despite conflicting information about the relationship between opioid use and national workforce levels, the opioid epidemic does not directly affect U.S. employment, according to research published in The Harvard Business Review.

In a cabinet meeting held Aug. 16, President Donald Trump urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file a federal lawsuit against select opioids manufacturers and suppliers, according to STAT.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Justice Department on Aug. 16 for U.S. drugmakers to cut production of the six most abused opioids by 10 percent.

A study published in JAMA Surgery examined the types of interventions that are effective for improving stewardship in opioid prescribing postsurgery.

Connecticut police arrested at least three people in connection to an incident Aug. 15 during which more than 80 people overdosed at a park in New Haven, according to ABC News.

Fatal drug overdoses killed more Americans than HIV, car crashes or guns in 2017, claiming 72,000 lives, according to a preliminary estimation from the CDC.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed legislation to fight the opioid epidemic into law Aug. 9, according to Mass Live. 

Oregon officials are weighing a proposal that would eliminate opioids prescribed to chronic pain patients in the state's Medicaid program, according to STAT.

Every 12.4 minutes, someone dies from an opioid overdose. It's a problem that doesn't discriminate. Men and women, young and old, black and white — we're all in its crosshairs.

A panel of healthcare providers and patients from Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine developed the country's first set of opioid prescription guidelines for 20 common surgeries.

Toby Cosgrove, MD, former president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, discussed America's efforts to combat the opioid epidemic during an Aug. 13 episode of CNBC's program the "Squawk Box," saying he believes the crisis has "peaked."

Emergency medical services' use of naloxone has demonstrated an alarming increase amid the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to research published Aug. 10 in the CDC's most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

National opioid use disorder rates among women delivering a baby more than quadrupled between 1999 and 2014, according to the CDC's most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published Aug. 10.

To overcome the disconnect between clinicians prescribing opioids and patients dying from opioid overdoses, researchers at Los Angeles-based University of Southern California aim to make the opioid epidemic more personal for physicians, according to a study published Aug. 10 in Science.

In a recent blog post, The Greeley Company discusses pain points for hospitals and physician practices within the context of the opioid epidemic. 

Young adults between ages 13 and 30 who fill an opioid prescription before or after having their wisdom teeth are 2.7 times more likely to demonstrate continued opioid use, according to a study published in JAMA.