Overdose Crisis

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) – Some groups aren’t happy about the new North Carolina State Budget, believing it’s lacking in important areas. Groups such as the Community Education Group and the North Carolina Council of Churches say the budget isn’t using opioid settlement funds for proven medications for addiction. They claim the budget invests in abstinence […]

North Carolina saw record highs in opioid overdose hospitalizations and deaths in 2022. Some policies enacted in the middle of the last decade had helped to reverse trends from the opioid epidemic. But the pandemic wiped out those gains and contributed to a worsening crisis that continued through last year. “People were isolated. They weren’t […]

A coalition of advocates, including parents who have lost children to overdose deaths, is calling on legislators to expand North Carolina’s Good Samaritan Law. One key change they want is for fentanyl — the biggest driver of fatal overdoses — to be listed alongside drugs like cocaine and heroin. These advocates say North Carolina’s law […]

North Carolina faith leaders started hearing from their parishioners several years ago that the opioid crisis was hitting home. They didn’t always know how to help. For many families and individuals, clergy can be a first contact during a crisis, said Elizabeth Brewington, an associate director of the NC Council of Churches. But in the […]

Fifty clergy members signed a letter, urging that opioid settlement money go toward harm reduction efforts. Watch Live on Spectrum News 1.

As overdose deaths in North Carolina continue to soar, a group of more than 50 statewide faith-based organizations is calling on city and county officials to act. In a letter sent Monday, they’re urging them to support what they call proven methods to reduce overdose fatalities.  The group wants county commissioners and city council members across […]

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (WITN) – North Carolina will soon receive $750 million in settlement funding for substance abuse resources and treatment. The state Department of Health and Human Services reported an average of nine deaths a day in 2020 from a drug overdose. That was a 40% increase from 2019. Faith-based organizations are optimistic that the […]

NORTH CAROLINA (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – One drug is responsible for thousands of overdose deaths in North Carolina, according to state health officials. Illicitly manufactured fentanyl, often combined with other substances, was involved in more than 70% of overdose deaths in N.C. in 2020, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said in a […]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — As the world begins to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re learning more about the collateral damage. This week, NCDHHS leaders announced 2020 saw a rapid increase, 40%, of drug overdose deaths in North Carolina. According to the NCDHHS, nine North Carolinians died every day in 2020 from […]

The settlement comes as North Carolina is seeing potentially record opioid deaths. A total of 3,961 people died of suspected overdoses in 2021, a 26% increase from 2020, when 3,132 suspected overdose deaths were recorded, according to data from the N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. “It is a tragedy beyond words that last […]

Radio Interview with Elizabeth Brewington, Partners in Health and Wholeness Associate Director, Overdose Response and HIV Advocacy.