Arkansas opioid prescribing, 2006-2016
Opioids' rise has babies entering world going through withdrawal
Doctors and officials say that a decade or more of rising opioid use and misuse in Arkansas produced a spike in cases of drug-dependent newborns.
Parents on opioids breaking families, taxing foster care
In response, the Division of Children and Family Services is starting to collect better data about what separates families in hopes such work will lead to increased grant funding.
Opioid-makers gushed dollars to Arkansas doctors
Federal data reveal that opioid manufacturers directed $5 million in "general payments" to about three-quarters of the state's doctors for consulting, meals, travel and promotional speaking.
State opioid deaths not all tallied; system for investigating, reporting them deemed unreliable
They just aren't sure how much higher -- mostly because county coroners don't have a consistent system for investigating deaths and because of gaps in training those coroners.