The Rural Blog

A digest of events, trends, issues, ideas and journalism from and about rural America, by the Institute for Rural Journalism, based at the University of Kentucky. Links may expire, require subscription or go behind pay walls. Please send news and knowledge you think would be useful to benjy.hamm@uky.edu.

The Rural Blog

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Demon Copperhead author Barbara Kingsolver talks about the opioid epidemic and Appalachia's difficulty with it

DEA chief says U.S. needs laws to keep social-media platforms from being used to promote and sell fentanyl

Appeals court OKs plan that shields owners of Purdue Pharma from future lawsuits; they must give it up, donate

Over-the-counter Narcan will save lives by stopping drug overdoses. It'll be available this fall; price remains a hurdle.

Poll of rural adults finds them more aware of, and more willing to discuss, opioid problems; 47% still see stigma

In many states, opioid settlement funds going to local governments do not reflect communities' extreme losses

Officials, advocates push more rural health-care providers to prescribe Suboxone (buprenorphine) for drug addiction

Meth use dramatically increases odds of nonfatal overdose among rural drug users, whether used with opioids or alone

Book: American opioid industry operated like a drug cartel

Judge rejects claim by W.Va. community that nation's three largest opioid distributors should pay for public nuisance

Health-care roundup: Providers in N.D. discuss challenges; regulations boosting telehealth expansion will expire soon

'Dopesick' movie wins a Peabody; author of book says her next one, about solutions to opioid crisis, will be out Aug. 15

Fentanyl drove record number of drug-related deaths in 2020; teens often score the pills on social media

Documents show how top opioid maker Mallinckrodt drove the epidemic by getting doctors to prescribe more pills

Some pain patients and doctors worry the CDC's revised opioid-prescription guidelines won't help patients enough

Study: Alcohol-related problems jumped during pandemic

Purdue Pharma owners agree to raise OxyContin settlement to $6 billion after 9 states said $4.5 billion wasn't enough

Opioid treatment programs are inaccessible for many rural Americans, and many don't offer the full range of treatment

Fentanyl deaths have at least doubled in every state during pandemic; see state-level data and maps

Over 400 Native American tribes agree to $665 million opioid deal with Johnson & Johnson, other drug companies