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A recovering heroin addict shows his prescription of Suboxone, a maintenance treatment for opioid dependence, in Burlington, Vt. in 2014.

opioid/heroin epidemic

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Q&A
The Untold Story of How Crack Shaped the Justice System
In a new book, a journalist wrestles with how lessons from America’s response to crack resonate in the opioid era.
Donovan X. Ramsey, a Black man with short hair, wears a white shirt, vest and green pants, and stands in front of a newsstand.
Wednesday, July 28th - Warren, Maine..Residents at Maine State Prison line up for the 6:30am med call during which some patients receive buprenorphine or methadone...Philip Keith for The Marshall Project
News August 10, 2021
These Meds Prevent Overdoses. Few Federal Prisoners Are Getting Them
Three years after the First Step Act required the Bureau of Prisons to treat more people with medications for opioid addiction, only a tiny fraction are receiving them.
By
On May 4, 2021, President Joe Biden extended class-wide scheduling of fentanyl analogues through October, making it easier to go after low-level drug dealers. Critics say it will disproportionately affect communities of color.
The Lowdown June 16, 2021
Biden Could Have Taken the War on Drugs Down a Notch. He Didn’t.
A little-noticed law could make it easier to punish people for low-level drug crimes — and put them in prison for longer with less proof.
By
Life Inside September 3, 2020
I Thought Jail Would Help Me Get Clean. I Was Dead Wrong.
I asked a drug court to send me to jail to get stabilized. But when the jail refused to give me my Suboxone, everything came crashing down.
By Morgan Godvin
Dr. Erin Zerbo, center, who runs the Newark, N.J., CARE Center (Center for Addiction Resources & Education), talks with a group of patients, including Cydiaa Williams, at left.
News May 10, 2019
Treatment for Opioid Addiction, With No Strings Attached
Some doctors are abandoning the long-held belief that treating addiction is impossible without talk therapy.
By
President Donald Trump speaks during a briefing on the opioid crisis in August 2017, at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.
Commentary August 30, 2017
Trump Sells Snake Oil on Opioids
Instead of offering real solutions to the epidemic, the president is race baiting.
Maria Mcfarland Sánchez-Moreno
An peer counselor at Insite demonstrates how someone would use one of their injection booths.
News November 6, 2015
Is the U.S. Ready for Safe Injection Rooms?
A widespread heroin problem could open the door to a once-radical idea.
By
A weekly heroin awareness walk organized by a non-profit group called Stop Heroin, in St. Peters, Mo., last April.
Analysis August 12, 2015
When Heroin Hits the White Suburbs
Suddenly it’s not a crime problem, it’s a health problem.
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