'Opioid overdose epidemic continues to worsen and evolve,' CDC says

Nearly 9,000 pediatric deaths were attributed to opioids from 1999 through 2016, according to a report published Friday in the journal JAMA Network Open. During that 18-year span, the mortality rate for youth due to opioid poisonings nearly tripled.

Opioids killing more children

A court ruling Monday in Massachusetts will expose details about one of America's richest families and their connection to the nation's opioid crisis.

The Sacklers and members of their company Purdue Pharma have been named in a lawsuit that accuses them of profiting from the opioid crisis by aggressively marketing OxyContin, claims denied by attorneys for the family and Purdue.

One of America's richest families is accused of profiting from the nation's opioid crisis

But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about “significant” abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information.

Origins of an Epidemic: Purdue Pharma Knew Its Opioids Were Widely Abused

Capitalism and health care

Purdue Pharma, one of the pharmaceutical companies accused of fueling the deadly opioid crisis, considered selling an anti-addiction drug to "an attractive market" of people struggling with addictions, according to newly unveiled court documents.

First it sold Oxycontin, then pharma company saw market for anti-addiction drug, suit says