US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., himself in long-term recovery from opioid addiction, says a national emergency declaration linked to opioid overdose deaths will be extended past Friday's expiration date. JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images/AFP hide caption
Elena (left) and Vadim pose for a photo in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Feb. 26. Rachel Wisniewski for NPR hide caption
Esther Nesbitt lost two of her children to drug overdoses, and her grandchildren are among more than 320,000 who lost parents in the overdose epidemic. Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks Friday at the 67th Session of the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria. Theresa Wey/AP hide caption
Drug-related street crime in Portugal has dropped along with overdoses. "There's an impression in the U.S. that if you decriminalize drugs, it's a wild west," said Miguel Moniz at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon. "That hasn't been the case in Portugal." Brian Mann/NPR hide caption
Matt Capelouto, whose daughter died from a fentanyl overdose, speaks at a news conference outside the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, April 18, 2023. Capelouto is among dozens of protesters who called on the Assembly to hear fentanyl-related bills as tension mounts over how to address the fentanyl crisis. (AP Photo/Tran Nguyen) Tran Nguyen/AP hide caption
Critics say U.S. government training videos like this one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exaggerate fears of fentanyl exposure among police. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hide caption
Emily Ligawiec (right) and Officer John Cacela take weekly pottery classes together in Ware, Mass. Rather than arrest Ligawiec last winter when she took heroin and stole her mom's car, he offered her help. Karen Brown/New England Public Radio hide caption
The MX908 can check for the presence of fentanyl mixed with other drugs and such testing may help prevent overdoses. Sarah Mackin of the Boston Public Health Commission prepares the machine for testing some samples. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption
In Massachusetts last July, several Franklin County Jail inmates were watched by a nurse and a corrections officer after receiving their daily doses of buprenorphine, a drug that helps control opioid cravings. By some estimates, at least half to two-thirds of today's U.S. jail population has a substance use or dependence problem. Elise Amendola/AP hide caption
Paramedic Larrecsa Cox (center) and her quick-response team, including police Officer Stephanie Coffey (left) and Pastor Virgil Johnson (right), check in at the home in Huntington, W.Va., of someone who was revived a few days before from an overdose. Sarah McCammon/NPR hide caption
Some sixty "Opiod Overdose Kits" have been added defibrillator boxes in Bridgewater State University dorms and academic buildings like this one. Tovia Smith / NPR hide caption
The Surgeon General recommends more Americans carry naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote. Jake Harper/Side Effects Public Media hide caption
Hospital emergency departments are tasked with saving the lives of people who overdose on opioids. Clinicians and researchers hope that more can be done during the hospital encounter to connect people with treatment. FangXiaNuo/Getty Images hide caption
A recent study in Delray Beach identified at least six sober homes on this street alone. Greg Allen/NPR hide caption
First responders in Washington, D.C., bring naloxone on every emergency call. Shelby Knowles/NPR hide caption
A public restroom on the platform of the Central Square MBTA station in Cambridge, Mass., which people have used as a place for getting high. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption
Lisa, a client at the AAC Needle Exchange and Overdose Prevention Program in Cambridge, Mass. Nearly five years after an opioid overdose she still limps — possibly because of damage the drug cocktail did to her nerves or muscles. Robin Lubbock/WBUR hide caption
People in their mid-40s to mid-60s are more likely than any other group to be prescribed opioids with benzodiazepines. Both kinds of drugs can hamper breathing and mixing them is especially risky. Erwin Wodicka/iStock hide caption
Imodium is a popular brand of the drug loperamide. Because loperamide is increasingly being abused by opioid users, some toxicologists think it should have the same sales restrictions as pseudoephedrine. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Thousands of parents have lost sons and daughters across the country to an epidemic of accidental drug overdoses. Gary Waters/Ikon Images/Getty Images hide caption