Addiction

Drug companies already have sent $100 million to Missouri to settle lawsuits for their role in the opioid crisis. But the state could receive hundreds of millions more over the next two decades.

The St. Louis facility will offer a place for those in a mental health crisis to drop in and be seen by a professional the same day.

The new wellness center, once completed, will offer a place to help men recover from addiction in a region that only has a handful of detox beds.

Drug overdoses have killed more than 23,000 Missourians in the last two decades. Many of those were involved fentanyl and other potent opioids.

EMS workers across the state are receiving training on how to give overdose victims a dose of buprenorphine, which manages cravings and withdrawal symptoms, after reviving them from an overdose with the overdose reversal drug naloxone.

St. Louisan John Gaal has called for airlines to stock the overdose-reversal drug naloxone after he used the spray to revive a person during a Southwest flight to Las Vegas in 2022. The airline now has announced that starting this year it will include naloxone in its on-air medical kits.

Missouri's prescription drug monitoring database went online this week. Health workers will now need to enter patient information into a statewide database when they dispense opioids and other controlled substances.

The St. Louis County Department of Health will soon distribute the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone for free at county public libraries. Visitors can ask library employees for naloxone, and librarians will distribute it with no questions asked.

Data points to a nearly 75% increase in overdoses in Missouri since 2019, and last year was the second consecutive year that fentanyl accounted for over two-thirds of overdoses in Missouri.

Lately, it seems, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll has been suffering an identity crisis. St Louis musicians celebrate success in the music industry after their personal triumphs over substance abuse.