opioids

It’s a move that some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to a life-saving drug, though the exact impact will not be clear immediately. Here’s a look at the issues involved.

The office will include researchers and epidemiologists, who are expected to identify ways to help Floridians in recovery.

Fentanyl is killing people in Florida and across the U.S. in alarming numbers. Researchers may have discovered ways to lessen the drug's deadly effects and save lives.

One lawsuit was filed by eight Northwest Florida counties and four cities, and another by Miami-Dade and two South Florida cities. They allege that McKinsey & Company “played an integral role in creating and deepening the opioid crisis.”

Pinellas County opioid deaths are being addressed through CORE, an initiative being slowly rolled out across the state.

Some people say it’s reasonable for densely populated areas to receive more settlement funds, since they serve more of those affected. But others worry this overlooks rural communities disproportionately harmed by opioid addiction.

CVS would pay about $5 billion and Walgreens more than $5.5 billion, though neither company has admitted wrongdoing. States have until the end of the year to accept the terms of the settlement.

The retail giant becomes the latest major player in the drug industry to announce a plan to settle lawsuits filed by state and local governments over the toll of opioids sold at its pharmacies.

It could amount to the last round of huge settlements after years of litigation over the industry's role in an overdose crisis linked to more than 500,000 deaths in the U.S. over the past two decades.

Attorney General Ashley Moody announced that as part of the settlement Walmart has agreed to dispense 672,000 naloxone kits to first responders.

The plan is for health departments in all 67 counties to have kits with two Narcan nasal sprays that can be administered without a health care provider.

Know-how gained through the pandemic is seeping into other public health areas. But in a nation that has chronically underfunded its public health system, it’s hard to know which changes will stick.