A CVS Pharmacy is shown in Mount Lebanon, Pa., on Monday May 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
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Two of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains, CVS Health and Walgreen Co., announced agreements in principle Wednesday to pay about $5 billion each to settle lawsuits nationwide over the toll of opioids, and a lawyer said Walmart is in discussions for a deal.

(WTTW News)
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The agreement represents the second largest national settlement in U.S. history, dwarfed only by the agreements with tobacco firms reached in the 1990s.

(Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash)

Starting Thursday, Chicagoans calling the Illinois Helpline for Opioids and Other Substances can be transferred directly to treatment provider Family Guidance Centers, Inc. to receive immediate medication-assisted recovery. 

(Photo by @plqml // felipe pelaquim on Unsplash)

A key tenet of harm reduction is meeting people who use drugs where they’re at. The coronavirus challenged advocates’ ability to do just that, prompting them to think differently about how they provide and deliver services.

Deb Walker visits the grave of her daughter, Brooke Goodwin, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021, in Chester, Vt. Goodwin, 23, died in March of 2021 of a fatal overdose of the powerful opioid fentanyl and xylazine, an animal tranquilizer that is making its way into the illicit drug supply. (AP Photo / Lisa Rathke, File)

The provisional 2021 total translates to roughly one U.S. overdose death every 5 minutes. It marked a 15% increase from the previous record, set the year before. The CDC reviews death certificates and then makes an estimate to account for delayed and incomplete reporting.

(WTTW News)

The Illinois Overdose Action Plan offers new and expanded resources to help treat substance abuse and addiction.

Brian Hackel, right, an overdose prevention specialist, helps Steven Baez, a client suffering addiction, find a vein to inject intravenous drugs at an overdose prevention center, at OnPoint NYC in New York, N.Y., Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (AP Photo / Seth Wenig)

Supporters say the sites — also known as safe injection sites or supervised consumption spaces — are humane, realistic responses to the deadliest drug crisis in U.S. history. Critics see them as illegal and defeatist answers to the harm that drugs wreak on users and communities.

Liz Fitzgerald of Southington and Paige Niver of Manchester hold hands at the end of a news conference at Connecticut Attorney General William Tong's office, Thursday, March 3, 2022, in Hartford, Conn. Fitzgerald lost two sons to opioids and Niver's daughter became addicted to opioids after getting prescribed OxyContin at 14 years old. (AP Photo / Jessica Hill)

The deal, which must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, requires the Sackler family to pay as much as $6 billion, with $750 million for victims and their survivors. Most of the rest will go to state and local governments to fight the crisis. 

Fake pill bottles with messages about OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma are displayed during a protest outside the courthouse where the bankruptcy of the company is taking place in White Plains, N.Y., on Aug. 9, 2021. (AP Photo / Seth Wenig, File)
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In all, the plan could be more than $10 billion over time. It calls for members of the Sackler family to give up control of the Stamford, Connecticut-based company so it can be turned into a new entity with profits used to fight the opioid crisis.

(Bruno / Germany via Pixabay)

Local advocates say so-called safe injection sites – safe havens for people to use drugs with protections against fatal overdoses – are crucial, especially with a rise in overdoses amid the pandemic.

Supplies are shown on a desk at Safer Inside, a realistic model of a safe injection site in San Francisco, Aug. 29, 2018. (AP Photo / Eric Risberg, File)
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A year after winning a major court battle against the opening of so-called safe injection sites — safe havens for people to use heroin and other narcotics with protections against fatal overdoses — the Justice Department is signaling it might be open to allowing them.

(Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash)

The number of Americans 55 and older who died from an opioid overdose surged 1,886% from a little over 500 deaths in 1999 to more than 10,000 deaths two decades later, according to a new report.

A new effort is underway to help reduce the number of overdoses in Chicago— by distributing fentanyl test strips. (Courtesy Cook County Department of Public Health)

The city’s public health department has been distributing the tests since October to try and reduce the number of deaths due to the drug. The city has distributed somewhere between 14-1500 kits.

(Photo by Mayron Oliveira on Unsplash)

More than 96,000 people died of drug overdoses during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – that’s an increase of almost 30 percent in just one year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Sharon Grover holds up a photograph of her daughter, Rachael, over the gravesite at Fairview Cemetery, Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021, in Mesopotamia, Ohio. Grover believes her daughter started using prescription painkillers around 2013 but missed any signs of her addiction as her daughter, the oldest of five children, remained distanced. (AP Photo / Tony Dejak)
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In a bellwether federal trial starting Monday in Cleveland, two Ohio counties will try to convince a jury that retail pharmacy companies played an outsized role in creating a public nuisance in the way they dispensed pain medication into their communities.

(Photo by James Yarema on Unsplash)

Chicago public health officials reported 467 opioid-related deaths in January through June 2021, compared with 573 during the first six months of 2020 — an 18.5% decrease. About 90% of the incidents involved fentanyl, officials said.