News

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) led a roundtable discussion with Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition (HC ARC), law enforcement, and other stakeholders to discuss opiate addiction, the rise in fentanyl overdoses in Ohio and across the U.S., and efforts to address those issues – both on a local and national level.

Researchers with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center are finding out more about the link between chronic pain and opioid use disorders.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A drug policy reform group has sued the state panel that will decide how Ohio distributes more than half of the money it will receive from a nationwide settlement regarding the opioid addiction crisis.

A drug policy reform group said the foundation set up by the state to spend more than $400 million in opioid settlement money on substance use treatment programs isn’t being transparent about how it will do that.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—The OneOhio Recovery Foundation Board, set up to decide how distribute hundreds of millions of dollars of opioid settlement money, is refusing to divulge records or allow the public to attend meetings, according to lawsuits filed by a drug policy reform group.

The nonprofit tasked with distributing $440 million in opioid settlement money isn't following public records and meeting laws, according to lawsuits filed Monday.

People with opioid-use disorder are increasingly seeking out illicit fentanyl, often smoking it.

CLEVELAND - Martin Escobar, 58, a former Mahoning County physician, was sentenced today to 25 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent after he previously pleaded guilty to 54 counts of illegally prescribing controlled substances—including two counts of distributing controlled substances that caused the deaths of two patients and one count of distributing a controlled substance to a person under the age of 21—and 31 counts of health care fraud.