Special thanks
to our supporters

  • NewsMatch
  • Ernie Pyle
  • Regional Transportation Authority/Pima Association of Governments
  • Newton B & Sunny Link Ashby
  • KXCI Community Radio
  • Sharon Bronson
  • Ted Schmidt
  • Kathryn Reed
  • Richard & Mary Fimbres
  • Lhasha Tizer & Russell Lowes
  • Jerald Peek
  • & many more!

We rely on readers like you. Join them & contribute to the Sentinel today!

Hosting provider

Proud member of

Local Independent Online News Publishers Authentically Local Local First Arizona Institute for Nonprofit News
 1 2 3 4 >  Last »
Increasing naloxone’s over-the-counter availability will convey the message that risks associated with substance use disorder warrant a pervasive intervention much as with other illnesses.

On March 29, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Narcan - the 4-milligram nasal spray version of naloxone, a medication that can quickly counteract an opioid overdose - for over-the-counter sale, an essential step in reducing deaths due to overdose. Read more»

Stigmatization of users, unintended consequences of criminal penalties and a lack of communication across systems all hamper clear data collection that could improve people’s quality of life in other area.

A 600-page report published Thursday encourages federal, state and local lawmakers to think “beyond traditional silos” and innovate ways to stem adverse effects of addiction and increasing drug overdose deaths among Americans. Read more»

Fentanyl has overtaken heroin for the first time as the most-trafficked drug across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Fentanyl dealers linked to an overdose death could face the death penalty under a Arizona Republican proposal that critics say will also sweep up drug addicts and send them to death row. Read more»

En 2022, 3246 personas murieron por sobredosis de opioides en Arizona, según el Departamento de Servicios de Salud de Arizona.

La epidemia de opiáceos ha afectado a todas las razas, pero cuando se trata de buscar tratamiento, algunos grupos minoritarios están en clara desventaja, dijo un panel de expertos en un foro reciente en línea. Read more»

Josephine and Mitch Dunn talk about the death of their daughter, Ashley Dunn.

An Arizona bill that would establish a level 1 felony punishment for selling a narcotic drug that results in the death of the user aims to help stem the fentanyl epidemic, the third wave of the opioid epidemic that has gripped the country since the 1990s. Read more»

Because it may not be clear which of the multiple drugs in someone’s system is the one that actually killed them, the bill instead targets anyone who sold the user a drug that may have contributed to the death.

The Arizona House Health and Human Services Committee voted in favor of a bill that would establish a level 1 felony punishment for selling a narcotic drug that results in the death of the user - but some Democrats say the bill is unconstitutional and broad. Read more»

Pima County Attorney Laura Conover spoke against the proposed bill, saying that there are already laws on the books that prosecutors can use for these types of deaths, and her office has successfully prosecuted several dealers for manslaughter.

A proposed Arizona law that would allow drug dealers to be charged with homicide if their product killed someone was shot down by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, with one lawmaker saying it would cause more problems that it would solve. Read more»

Kern dismissed statistics that Arizona’s prison system is one of the fastest growing in the nation and that the state has one of the largest prison populations in the nation.

Fentanyl dealers linked to an overdose death could face the death penalty under an Arizona Republican proposal that critics say will also sweep up drug addicts and send them to death row. Read more»

More schools around the country are ordering Narcan kits like this to reverse overdoses of opioids, including deadly fentanyl.

Federal government and some states are redoubling efforts to curb the epidemic of overdoses from opioid painkillers, heroin and fentanyl by making medication-assisted treatment more accessible to the estimated 9.5 million people with an opioid use disorder. Read more»

A staff member at Hushabye Nursery in Phoenix feeds one of the babies on Nov. 8, 2022. Infants brought to the nursery are withdrawing from drugs they were exposed to before birth – opioids, in particular. Across the country, cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome increased 82% from 2010 to 2017. That means that in the U.S., a baby is diagnosed with NAS every 19 minutes.

Across the country, cases of neonatal abstinence syndrome increased a startling 82% from 2010 to 2017 - while Arizona cases increased 41% from 2017 to 2021 - and a Phoenix nursery is working to end the cycles that lead to multigenerational patterns of addiction. Read more»

With more federal money available for addiction treatment and billions to come from a nationwide opioid settlement, addiction treatment advocates say they’re hopeful that the use of buprenorphine in emergency departments will take off.

Last year, 109,000 people died from a drug overdose, more than double the number in 2015, and though medical professionals have long argued that buprenorphine should be available in every emergency room in the country, adoption of the practice has been sluggish. Read more»

More schools around the country are ordering Narcan kits like this to reverse overdoses of opioids, including deadly fentanyl.

School districts around the country - including Arizona, one of only six states that requires schools to have a naloxone policy - are trying to quickly respond to the growing toll from fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. Read more»

In 2021, Border Patrol agents in Yuma found 5 pounds of fentanyl, worth about $60,000, stuffed into breakfast burritos in a backpack in a vehicle. Fentanyl, which was developed in 1960 to manage pain in cancer patients, is easy for drug cartels to manufacture and distribute in the U.S.

Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s claim that fentanyl overdoses are the leading cause of death in Arizona is false, though the synthetic opioid has been partially responsible for an increase in the number of drug overdose deaths both nationally and locally. Read more»

There were more than 107,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. last year, up more than 50% since 2019.

In dealing with the opioid crisis, the Biden administration is quietly embracing “harm reduction” — a controversial approach that could save thousands of lives but create a political firestorm because it appears to be giving up and accepting illegal drug use as normal. Read more»

Last year, marijuana and hallucinogen use by young adults aged 19 to 30 increased significantly compared to five and 10 years ago - reaching record levels - and more than 1 in 10 were “daily” consumers, using marijuana 20 times or more in the past 30 days. Read more»

 1 2 3 4 >  Last »