Watchdog finds DEA was ‘slow to respond’ to opioid epidemic

The Drug Enforcement Administration was “slow to respond” as America grappled with a rising opioid epidemic, the Justice Department’s inspector general said in a report Tuesday that faulted the agency for cutting back use of a key enforcement tool and continuing to raise production quotas even as the number of deaths rose.

Doctor facing life in prison for thousands of opioid doses

By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about a half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years.

OxyContin maker reaches tentative opioid-crisis settlement

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma reached a tentative deal Wednesday with about half the states and thousands of local governments over its role in the nation's deadly opioid epidemic, but criticism by several state attorneys general clouded prospects for an end to litigation against the company and the family that owns it.

Some states, towns skeptical over proposed opioid settlement

An offer from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family to settle some 2,000 lawsuits over their contribution to the national opioid crisis is receiving growing pushback from state and local officials who say the proposed deal doesn't include enough money or accountability.

Q&A: Deadly opioid crisis sparks lawsuits across the US

The first judgment is expected Monday in a lawsuit from a state government seeking to hold a drug company accountable for a U.S. opioid crisis that has ripped apart lives and communities. More trials and legal settlements are likely to follow the ruling in Oklahoma as the nation looks for answers and solutions to a massive societal and legal problem.

DEA: Over 1 million fentanyl pills seized in Arizona

A deadly drug is pouring into the United States at an alarming rate, and on Thursday, DEA agents in Phoenix announced they have seized more than one million fentanyl pills so far this year.