Opioid addiction

The overdose reversal medication naloxone is now available for purchase over-the-counter, but advocates say it’s still cost prohibitive — and that stigma continues to impede access.

Health workers in St. Louis will soon be placing dozens of life-saving “naloxboxes” in St. Louis and St. Louis County neighborhoods where there are many opioid drug overdoses and few clinics and hospitals. The boxes contain the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and will be put in high-visibility, public areas.

CareSTL Health is creating a new health center in the Greater Ville neighborhood of north St. Louis. When complete next year, the Ville Wellness Center will house a drive-thru pharmacy and physical, occupational and behavioral therapy clinics.

New data on opioid deaths among Black St. Louisans show fatal overdoses up by more than 500% since 2015. A physician and a researcher with the new CENTER Initiative discuss what they’re doing to reduce those deaths.

Fentanyl is driving an overdose crisis that’s proving especially deadly for Black Missourians. Now St. Louis and Kansas City are starting to see the effects, but health experts say that existing efforts to treat substance use disorder aren’t helping the people who need it most.

The money will fund addiction treatment and prevention programs in the state, addressing the harm inflicted by the opioid crisis.

Through the first six months of 2021, nearly 800 Missourians died from opioid overdose; well over half the total number of deaths in 2020. Law enforcement and public health experts say the synthetic opioid fentanyl is largely to blame.

St. Louis University sociology professor Elizabeth Chiarello outlines ways the state should spend the $450 million it will receive from a lawsuit against manufacturers and distributors of addictive opioid painkillers.

A large share of construction workers in Missouri, southern Illinois and Kansas are being diagnosed with muscle and joint injuries each year, according to a large analysis of union health care data from Washington University, and many are prescribed opioid painkillers.

ROLLA — If Missouri receives money from its lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, rural health care providers want to make sure they get some of those…