drugs

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services appears poised to cut a $56 million annual grant program that pays for some of Missouri's overdose reversal medication and training.

Fewer Kansas Citians are dying of drug overdoses for the first time in over a decade. A local public health worker and a community paramedic joined KCUR's Up To Date to explain what’s contributed to the turnaround and what needs to happen to keep this trend going.

A Wellness Court opened this month within Kansas City's Municipal Court, replacing the separate mental health and drug courts. The new approach offers a unique focus on co-occurring issues and lowers the barriers for people to get help.

Missouri officials say the overdose reversal drug naloxone helped contribute to the first decrease in drug-related deaths since 2015.

Missouri lawmakers will consider dozens of health-related bills this session. Topics like insulin pricing, food labeling and mental health are top of mind, as well as efforts to reverse the abortion rights amendment passed by voters in November.

Victims of the opioid crisis, health advocates, and policy experts have called on state and local governments to clearly report how they’re using the funds they are receiving from settlements with opioid companies. So where are Missouri's dollars going?

After decades of devastating increases driven by fentanyl and other toxic street drugs, overdose deaths are dropping sharply in much of the U.S. In Missouri, drug deaths dropped 10% last year, and now the decrease seems to be accelerating.

Thousands of people took over the small town of Sedalia, Missouri, on this day in 1974 for the Ozark Music Festival, a party full of nudity, drugs and rock 'n' roll music. Half a century later, people still talk about the lore from that hot wild weekend. Plus: One very fluffy prison resident is changing the men around him in a Missouri correction facility.

Kansas City plasma donors help the United States fuel a pharmaceutical industry worth $35 billion. Many donors have lower incomes and rely on on selling their plasma to make ends meet.

Pharmacy manufacturers, who are playing defense on similar bills across the country, want Missouri Gov. Mike Parson to veto the legislation because the discounted prescriptions are often sold to patients at full retail price.

The Kansas Department of Corrections is using opioid settlement funds to pay for a program aimed at reducing opioid overdose deaths. Opioids like fentanyl are a major driver of rapidly rising overdose deaths in Kansas.

Missouri child welfare advocates and lawmakers are alarmed over the sparse use of a drug rehabilitation program that could help keep kids safe. Plus: How women surgeons at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita are trying to change the status quo.