Pew Charitable Trusts

Fifty times stronger than heroin and a hundred times stronger than morphine, fentanyl is relatively cheap to produce illicitly and efficient to transport. It is often mixed with heroin, so that users are unaware they are inhaling or injecting the dangerous drug.

Tim Cullen’s marijuana business brought in millions of dollars last year, but he’s had a hard time finding a bank to take the money. He’s cycled through 14 checking accounts in six years. Recently, he said, a bank shut down all his personal accounts, including college savings for his 3-year-old daughter.

Nationwide, the number of pregnant women using heroin, prescription opioids or medications used to treat opioid addiction has increased more than five-fold and it’s expected to keep rising.

Fathers’ rights groups, such as the National Parents Organization, are pushing the proposals, arguing that they will give fathers a better chance at a fair ruling and pointing to new research that shows how joint custody may be better than sole custody for children’s health.

Health care for aging prisoners costs far more than it does for younger ones, just as it does outside prison walls. Corrections departments across the country report that health care for older prisoners costs between four and eight times what it does for younger prisoners.

They’re poor, more likely to be sexually abused, end up in foster care, drop out of school, become homeless. They’re often the prey of traffickers.