About 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year — about 14% fewer than the previous year, according to preliminary government data.

Nearly 300 new Illinois laws will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Vending machines containing free Narcan will be placed at five CTA stations throughout Chicago as part of a six-month pilot initiative between the CTA and Cook County Health.

The vending machines will be located at the 47th Street Red Line station, Wilson Red and Purple Line station, Jefferson Park Blue Line station, Harlem/Lake Green Line station and the Central Park Pink Line station.

The Narcan newsstands, which were officially launched during a harm reduction event Wednesday, will be at four locations in Uptown.

Two of the most closely followed measures aim to protect the drinking water of a wide swath of central Illinois and boost the pension benefits for first responders in Chicago.

Chicago Transit Authority Acting President Nora Leerhsen said the agency has entered a “new phase” after the Illinois General Assembly failed last month to pass a measure tackling a $770 million budget gap for Chicago-area transit.

The bill would allow trained library workers to administer opioid antagonists to potential overdose victims on library grounds, in the immediate vicinity of libraries and at library events.

The settlement comes after a complaint filed in Chicago’s federal court alleged Walgreens pharmacists filled illegal prescriptions for excessive quantities of opioids and prescriptions for a particularly dangerous combination of drugs.

The proposal, House Bill 1910, does not provide for funding from the state, but it stipulates the opioid antagonists may be supplied by local county health departments. Training library staff would be overseen by organizations selected by the Illinois Department of Public Health.

It’s the first new pharmaceutical approach to treating pain in more than 20 years, offering an alternative to both opioids and over-the-counter medications like ibuprofen and acetaminophen.

Illinois will receive a $40 million share of a $1.4 billion bipartisan national settlement with Kroger over the grocery chain’s role in the opioid crisis, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced.

The first big update to U.S. methadone regulations in 20 years is poised to expand access to the life-saving drug starting next month, but experts say the addiction treatment changes could fall flat if state governments and methadone clinics fail to act.

There were about 101,000 overdose deaths in the year ending in April, CDC estimates. There are still far more lives being lost now than before the pandemic – in 2019, there were about 72,000 fatal overdoses – but the latest data shows that deaths dropped a marked 10% in one year and are the lowest they’ve been since the spring of 2021.

Community organizations in Chicago are underlining the importance of free and easily available access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone, as it nears the one-year mark since the drug Narcan hit store shelves nationwide for over-the-counter sale.

According to the Illinois Prescription Monitoring Program, both the number of opioid prescriptions written and the number of patients served dropped by almost half since 2015.