The purchase of the former Sweet Brook nursing home to convert to an “inpatient behavioral health care facility” comes at a time when the opioid overdose crisis is in full
Narcan can reverse opioid overdoses and save lives. A local lawmaker is again pushing to require first responders to carry the drug, with a legislative hearing set Monday.
The Bay State can follow the lead of Vermont and Rhode Island, where minor possession of a partial opioid agonist that can help prevent fatal overdoses and opioid withdrawal symptoms
EAGLE INVESTIGATIONS: In recent months, Vermont and Rhode Island have decriminalized possession of small amounts of buprenorphine, a medication used for opioid use disorder treatment. Advocates say decriminalization helps spread
Opioid overdose deaths in Berkshire County jumped by 44 percent last year, to the highest level recorded, amid a slight increase in fatal overdoses statewide.
Public health officials announced Wednesday that opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts rose by 5 percent in 2020, the first increase in three years.
In a year marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges it created in accessing health care and social supports, the state recorded 2,104 confirmed and estimated deaths, about the same number of fatalities as the epidemic s 2016 peak.
The toll of the pandemic for people with opioid use disorder was particularly stark in the Berkshires, which had the second-highest rate of increase in the state. Fatal overdoses in Berkshire County rose from 39 in 2019 to 56 last year, according to the preliminary data.