Alcohol & Substance Abuse

The rise in fentanyl has prompted the state to start giving out a more powerful overdose-reversing medicine.

The nonprofit Recover Alaska identified a chronic shortage of social workers as a key issue behind the state’s worst-in-the-nation status for alcohol-attributed deaths. 

The Drug Enforcement Administration is warning that drug dealers are marketing rainbow-colored fentanyl to kids. Many drug experts say that’s likely not happening.

Fifteen Tribal organizations across the state were granted a total of $9 million. The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services will be getting $4 million.

Council recommends investing settlement money so it can fund opioid abuse recovery efforts in perpetuity.

While many police departments across the state use Narcan, the Anchorage Police Department — the state’s largest law enforcement agency — does not.

Fentanyl was involved in nearly three-quarter of the opioid deaths, many of which also involved mixtures with methamphetamine or heroin.

Alaska has the fastest rising opioid overdose rate in the nation. More than 200 Alaskans died from overdoses in the last year.

Drug overdoses are killing more people than ever in the U.S., and a new CDC report finds growing racial disparities among those who have died — with the largest increase among Black Americans.

“We absolutely do feel safer,” one plant manager said about having overdose prevention resources on hand.