OPIOIDS

The Republican from Texas has combined attention to border issues with efforts to address deadly overdoses, including ideas that are opposed by some in his party, such as decriminalizing test strips.

The legislation comes after a bill to decriminalize the test strips passed the Texas House but died in the Senate despite support from Gov. Greg Abbott.

The professor, an expert on the opioids crisis, was placed on paid administrative leave and investigated, raising questions about the extent of political interference in higher education, particularly in health-related matters.

A Bexar County mother hopes sharing the story about her son’s overdose death will help save someone’s life this holiday weekend.

Abbott will have until June 18 to sign or veto bills. If signed, SB 629 will become law immediately.

You’ve likely heard Narcan can save lives. KSAT Explains how it works, where it comes from, and what happens after someone is given the medication.

There’s a life-saving medication that quickly reverses an opioid overdose, and right now it’s available to anyone for free.

There is help for people suffering from opioid use disorder.

Virtual training sessions that began during the pandemic have allowed far more people to take the trainings, including people from rural areas and tribal nations.

Stuck in committee, the test-strip legislation has support from Gov. Greg Abbott and bipartisan lawmakers, who see it as a way to save lives.

A new program is designed to provide help for the opioid crisis.

Don’t wait — that’s the message a local judge and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration have for parents when it comes to teaching their kids about the dangers of fentanyl.

Bexar County Commissioners approved a policy that will guide how the county spends over $14 million it received from a statewide opioid settlement.

Mark Fahlsing says he is trying to focus on all the good things his daughter did for her community through volunteer work and teaching kids. He also wants parents to warn kids and about fentanyl.

There are a lot of things that make recovery difficult for people with substance use disorders. One of those barriers is transportation to important appointments. That's why a UT Health San Antonio program is now offering its patients free Lyft rides.

Danica Kaprosy was found lying face down, unresponsive, on her bed last July. Her family blames her death on a fentanyl-laced pill.

Although the Selma Police Department is still awaiting the toxicology results from the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office, a mother is warning other parents as she suspects her 17-year-old daughter died of a fentanyl overdose.

San Antonio are drug agents say a deadly synthetic opioid is in our streets and many victims are falling victim to it without knowing it.

A pharmacy on the city’s South Side unlawfully dispensed opioids and other controlled substances, federal officials said in a civil complaint filed Friday.

Bexar County residents who have an opioid addiction will soon have more resources available to help them after the county approved a roughly $12 million portion of a settlement between the State of Texas and Johnson & Johnson worth more than $290 million.

SAN ANTONIO – Tiffany Harper was once a woman addicted to drugs after using it to cope with trauma in her life. That’s when she moved into Casa Mia, a recovery center for mothers recovering from addiction. Casa Mia and the new Women’s Wellness Center is a joint effort by the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing and Crosspoint. The idea is to provide a place for recovering mothers to live with their babies as they rebuild their lives. “This has had a huge impact on young families,” said Dr. Lisa Cleveland of UT Health School of Nursing.

SAN ANTONIO Preliminary findings by the UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing show many opioid-addicted women have many of the same risk factors for drug overdoses and deaths. The two-year statewide study was done by nurse researchers at UT Health San Antonio. Cleveland said nationally, another report found maternal overdoses and deaths had doubled in the U.S. between 2007-2016. But she said losing custody of their children is also a leading cause of overdoses, especially if they're in recovery. She said the study will also help in developing a diagnostic tool in hopes of saving the lives of the mothers and their babies who often undergo painful drug withdrawals.

But the report also found that deaths of despair increased in some minority communities during the same time period. While the numbers were mostly level with 2017, they show a 51% increase over the past decade, the report found. Coronavirus could cause a spike in deaths of despairEven more problematic, though, the groups warned, these numbers could change when the coronavirus pandemic is factored in. Some opioid deaths down, other drug overdoses upThe big difference in overall deaths of despair in 2018 compared to the year before, the researchers said, was the lower numbers of overdose deaths involving prescription opioids, such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, and to a lesser extent heroin, which were down by 2%. Minority deaths of despair on the riseAlso troubling, whites were the only racial group that saw a decrease in overall deaths from drug overdoses in 2018 -- by 6% or 23.3 per 100,000.

The Bexar County Opioid Task Force announced Tuesday that it will be using money from a grant to will help those who are released from jail and reentering the community. "We're going to start a pilot program in the jail that we have a grant for that will help with the transition," said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff. Bexar County to seek $1 billion in first opioid trial in TexasThe new Medication Assisted Treatment Pilot Program will help people struggling with opioid addiction behind bars and that are reentering the community. “People would get two shots over 60 days in the jail and two shots after release,” said TJ Mayes, Bexar County Opioid Task Force Chairman. The task force anticipates that the program will serve about 100 people.

SAN ANTONIO – The opioid epidemic is a growing problem across the nation, and now Bexar County is expanding a treatment program for those who are addicted. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, along with Pct 2. Commissioner Justin Rodriguez and TJ Mayes, chairman of the Bexar County Opioid Task Force, announced an expansion of the county’s mental health program. The medication-assisted treatment pilot program will help people who battled opioid addiction behind bars and are reentering the community while under the supervision of a judge. The Bexar County Task Force is also getting approval for a syringe services program.

CLEVELAND – Recovering from abdominal surgery is tough. A combination of pain blockers and local anesthetics are placed right next to the incision before surgery. "They feel better, they're happier and they have less pain," Horattas said. According to Horattas, the recovery protocol can be used on all abdominal surgery patients and is being expanded to those going through breast surgery. This is a very serious problem because nearly 30% of patients who are prescribed opioids for pain misuse them.