Instagram is launching a new pop-up feature to help users who search drug-related hashtags find support resources, The Hill reports.

One-hundred and seventy-nine drug diversion incidents were reported between January to June of 2018, costing healthcare organizations $162 million in lost pills, according to Protenus' "Drug Diversion Digest" report.

A record 809 million opioids were prescribed in outpatient settings between 2006-15, and one-third of the prescriptions lacked physician explanation, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Many adolescents and young adults with opioid use disorder aren't receiving medication-assisted treatment, according to a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Comprehensive addiction training is rare in American medical education, which denies physicians the necessary diagnostic and communication skills required to treat patients with substance use disorder, according to The New York Times.

Drug exchange programs, which would function along the same lines as a needle exchange program, could help public health officials prevent dangerous overdoses caused by tainted synthetic drugs, according to an op-ed written by Ian Ayers, PhD, professor at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale Law School, and published in The Washington Post.

Endo International seeks to resolve more than 1,000 lawsuits filed against the company over its opioid painkiller Opana in a single deal, instead of joining an industrywide settlement with other opioid makers and distributors, according to Bloomberg.

Richard Sackler, MD, whose family owns Purdue Pharma, earned a patent for a new formulation of buprenorphine, according to STAT.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee will stop covering the prescription opioid OxyContin beginning January 1, 2019.

Students at Boston-based Harvard Medical School unveiled a photography exhibit at Brigham and Women's Hospital, also in Boston, illustrating  the narratives of local community members affected by the opioid epidemic, according to The Harvard Crimson.

The medical marijuana company Cresco Labs placed a pop-up style vending machine in Chicago Sept. 5 to advocate for alternative pain relief in the opioid epidemic, according to AdWeek.

Walk down the hall on 2 East at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, and the magnitude of the opioid epidemic will hit you.

Ketamine, an increasingly popular depression treatment, affects the brain like fentanyl and oxycodone, according to a study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry.

Purdue Pharma will donate $3.4 million to the nonprofit drug company Harm Reduction Therapeutics to develop a cheaper opioid overdose antidote.

The U.S. Department of Justice plans to crack down on U.S. cities that are considering opening medically-supervised drug injection sites to curb increasing rates of fatal drug overdoses, according to NPR.

The Senate will likely pass a comprehensive bill addressing the opioid crisis within the next few weeks, according to STAT.

Many companies and scientists are stepping up developmental efforts to make less addictive pain medications amid the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to Science.

Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor agreed to pay $4.3 million to resolve allegations of mishandling its prescription drug inventory. 

The hospital patient shows telltale signs of opioid withdrawal – feverish, shaking uncontrollably, crabby and irritated, crying out in anguish.

The FDA is taking steps to encourage drug manufacturers to pursue the creation of nonaddictive opioid alternatives for pain management, according to The Washington Post.