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By CLARA CHO

At the young age of 15, Rick Dyer’s addiction to drugs and drinking began.Going through over 40 bags of heroin a day at one point, he experienced homelessness and incarceration, both common among people struggling with substance abuse. But what was...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Two small cabinets installed in downtown’s Pulaski Park may be the key to preventing overdose deaths in the city, the latest in the city’s attempt to combat deaths resulting from opioid complications.Inside the cabinets, one finds three...

By MADDIE FABIAN

BOSTON — In a letter sent to President Joe Biden, Gov. Maura Healey requested that the nation’s flags are lowered to half-staff this Thursday in observance of International Overdose Awareness Day and in honor of lives lost to drug-related deaths.Since...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON – Advocates in the Hampshire County area in favor of overdose prevention centers may soon see their ideas realized this year by legislation from state lawmakers. The Massachusetts Democratic State Committee announced in January that it had...

By EMILY THURLOW

EASTHAMPTON — A few months ago a resident asked the city’s Health Department how they could acquire fentanyl test strips, one of several harm reduction products the city makes available for free upon request, without having to ask for them in person...

By MICHAEL CONNORS

HOLYOKE — A Wednesday afternoon traffic stop on Forestdale Avenue led to the recovery of a significant amount of heroin and cocaine as well as the arrests of two city people on drug trafficking charges.Holyoke Police narcotics detectives, as well as...

By M.J. TIDWELL

Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of a four-part series on the role of sedatives known as benzodiazepines in the nation’s opioid crisis. Dr. Christy Huff, a Texas cardiologist, was prescribed Xanax after a dry-eye syndrome caused her eyes to “feel like...

As communities confront the opioid epidemic in their homes, on the streets and in treatment centers, a new program aims to widen the prevention effort to middle schools through a public-private partnership.Attorney General Maura Healey this month...

By AMANDA DRANE

NORTHAMPTON — An event coordinated by  Hampshire HOPE and the Northwestern district attorney’s office aimed to offer just that: hope in the fight against the opioid crisis.And that’s exactly what it did for Deb McNeice, who said she was devastated...

By EMILY CUTTS

NORTHAMPTON — Jury deliberations have begun in the case of a former University of Massachusetts graduate student charged in the death of a fellow student.Testimony in the case against Jesse Carrillo, 28, concluded Friday morning in Hampshire Superior...

By EMILY CUTTS

NORTHAMPTON — For over two hours Thursday, a former University of Massachusetts graduate student took the stand detailing his heroin addiction and the role he played in the overdose death of an undergraduate in 2013.Day two of the trial of Jesse...

By EMILY CUTTS

NORTHAMPTON — The number of heroin overdoses in the city has nearly tripled in the last year, according to data released Wednesday by the Northampton Police Department .“We are indeed in the midst of a terrible epidemic,” the department wrote in a...