Fentanyl

Federal authorities have sentenced 15 members of south St. Louis gang 55 Boyz for fentanyl dealing, gun crimes and money laundering. The investigation involved St. Louis police and federal agents.

Missouri child advocates and legislators are alarmed over the sporadic use of a program to steer parents to drug rehabilitation and keep their children out of foster care.

The head of the agency that oversees the Missouri Children’s Division says he wants investigators to treat evidence of fentanyl as an imminent danger to kids.

“The subcommittee identified issues like inadequate case assessments and families declining services, leading to case closures,” a state report states.

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.

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.

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 synthetic opioid has continued to spread widely, with no signs of stopping. But, despite what many assume, there are tools at our disposal to help.

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.

Fentanyl has become an international scourge. It’s been blamed for a spike in drug overdose deaths in Missouri as well as around the world. It’s both…